Dr Rueben Adeleye Abati, the presidential spokesperson during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan and popular anchors of a thriving morning TV show has spoken on his article about demons in Aso Rock Villa which has remained a reference and reactions to the article.

He said, ”that article appears to have become so popular. A lot of people thought it was fiction, but it was not fiction. What I reported in that article – the spiritual side of Aso Villa – is about direct experience in that place. In fact, you will recall that after I wrote that article, some other people gave accounts of their experience in the Villa. What I even narrated was not the full story. People were dying, people were losing their loved ones, people were having all kinds of strange experiences. I was simply saying that, yes the presidential villa is a security zone but there are also human beings who go through all kinds of strange experiences.

“It is so bad that it is only the people who are affected who would be able to tell the story. I’m also saying that look, to go there for four years or eight years and go back home in one piece calls for celebration and I wasn’t making up that article. I had the mind that okay, one of these days I will return to that article and rework it, add more to it and include people’s testimonies. Nigerians will think it was fiction and said Abati was giving excuses for the failure or non-performance of the Jonathan administration,” he said.

He added that, “but here we are, eight years after the fact, nobody is referring to Dr Jonathan as a ‘clueless president’ anymore because Nigerians have been confronted with the true definition of cluelessness. President Jonathan has been vindicated before the very eyes of Nigerians. So, sometimes, people talk about things they don’t know about or what they have not experienced. But part of our training as literary persons is to observe society and as journalists to report society and to give a picture of the society and hold a mirror to the society so that the society can see their reflection.

“So, I’m sure people who have now also gone to the Aso Villa and who will be excited will have their own stories to tell. Not many of them will come out and say when they were there they were having visions of an encounter with angels except they do not want to tell the truth,” he explained. (Story adapted from Nigerian Tribune)