Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has denied claims that he had died and been replaced by a Sudanese impostor.
The Guardian reports that Buhari, who is running for re-election in February, spent five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed illness. One theory widely aired on social media, and by some political opponents, was that he had been replaced by a lookalike from Sudan called Jubril.
“It’s the real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong,” Buhari told Nigerians on Sunday when asked about Jubril. He was speaking from Poland, where he was attending a conference.
“A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the vice-president to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead. That embarrassed him a lot and, of course. He visited me when I was in London convalescing,’’ he said, adding that those who had spread the rumour were “ignorant and irreligious”.