Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, publicly identified with the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.), a day after failing to publicly identify with President Goodluck Jonathan, the candidate of his own ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who was in Abeokuta to campaign.

Obasanjo did not only warmly welcome and gleefully pose for photographs with Buhari and his entourage but also endorsed him as an unblemished man of integrity, a very significant development coming barely a month to the February 14 presidential ballot.

After making a cursory review of the records of the APC standard bearer even when he was Minister of Petroleum Affairs under him as military Head of State between 1976 and 1979 and as head of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) in the 1990s, Obasanjo described Buhari as unblemished.

He said: “When you (Buhari) were going to become manager of PTF, we talked about it and when you finished and I took over, we looked into it.

“I haven’t said this publicly, I would say it publicly now. When we looked into it, there was really nothing amiss except that that organisation went from road building into mosquito net buying and all sorts of things. And what the investigation discovered is a bit of inconsistency in prices and all that. In one area, mosquito net might have been given for N50; in another, N45. And then, we remarked that this is fishy. We should look into it.

“And I called my brother and colleague (Buhari), I said this and he said ‘look, we are managing billions of naira and I tried to make sure I see everything. But I will not say that what they have said about this is correct or not correct. But I can assure you, I tried to see everything.’ I said okay. Muhammadu, between me, you and God, was there any personal benefit for you? And you said no. I said that is the end of the matter. Although there was that investigation, its report was not of any material importance.”

•Adapted from a Newswatch Times report. Photo shows Obasanjo posing with Buhari and his entourage . . . yesterday in his Abeokuta residence.