By Olusola Fabiyi
Published: Saturday, 30 Dec 2006

The vice-president, who assured that he would return to the country after his holidays, noted that it was wrong to assume that he had already gone on exile when it was certain that he actually went on a vacation that was approved by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Speaking through the Head of his Media Campaign Office, Mallam Garba Shehu, on Thursday, Abubakar said he would return to the country mid-January 2007.

The Presidency on Wednesday filed a suit at the Court of Appeal, Abuja, asking that the seat of the vice-president be declared vacant following his defection to the Action Congress. The AC nominated Abubakar last Wednesday as its presidential candidate.

In the suit, which was filed by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), the Presidency also urged the court to restrain Abubakar from parading himself as vice-president after abandoning the Peoples Democratic Party, under whose banner he assumed the position. Abubakar also on the same date filed a counter-suit asking the court to nullify his purported removal from office and the declaration of his seat as vacant.

Shehu said, “Vice-President Abubakar still remains the vice-president of the country. He is on vacation and not on exile as is erroneously believed in some quarters. He has said that he will return to the country and you don’t have to doubt that.”

Asked when the vice-president would return, he said he could not be specific; “but I can tell you that he will be back in the middle of January, next year, to resume fully in his office as the vice-president.”

Shehu said the reference to Abubakar as a former vice-president in the Presidency’s suit should be ignored.

He said, “If the Federal Government actually believes that the seat has become vacant, will it still go to court, asking the same court to declare his office vacant? If you are asking the court to give you permission to do something, that means that you believe that the action you have taken is illegal. So, you can see that the office of the vice-president is not vacant as they are claiming.”