Sojworldnews | Politics

Laolu Akande Rejects Babachir Lawal’s Claims on Buhari and Osinbajo

Laolu Akande, the former spokesperson to ex-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has rejected claims by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, as false. In a statement issued on Saturday, Akande said he spoke from first-hand knowledge because he served in the Office of the Vice President throughout the Buhari years. Moreover, he said such fabrications would ordinarily not deserve a response. He answered Lawal point by point, and he insisted that the records contradict the story.

Lawal made his claims in an interview on Symfoni, where he said former President Muhammadu Buhari never fully backed Osinbajo in 2022. Akande titled his reply “A Response to Mr. Babachir Lawal’s Falsehoods Against Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.” He then took each allegation in turn.

First, Akande tackled the claim that Buhari found Osinbajo’s 2022 ambition immoral. “This is false,” he said. According to Akande, Buhari personally offered to support Osinbajo on at least four occasions, telling him, “If I don’t support you, who will I support?” Akande added that Buhari openly praised Osinbajo at a Federal Executive Council meeting during the APC primary campaign. He said the president commended the dignified, issues-based way Osinbajo campaigned, and he said the entire council witnessed it.

Next, Akande denied that any memo carrying more than 20 staff names ever existed. He said Osinbajo always had direct access to Buhari, took his memos straight to the president and collected the approval himself. The approved memo then went to the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Ade Ipaye, who passed it to the relevant agencies. Akande said the SGF’s office came in only at the end, to issue appointment letters.

Akande also said Lawal’s timeline collapses. Lawal claimed the memo sat for three months, yet Akande said he and several colleagues resumed in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015, along with many of the staff Lawal now mentions. In his account, Osinbajo took different batches of memos to the president at different times as the office took shape. Akande also rejected the ethnic remark Lawal attributed to Buhari, and he said such language is alien to the late president. In addition, he said Buhari, not Osinbajo, sacked Lawal before a good number of those appointments took place.

Akande then turned to the claim that Osinbajo filled his office with church members. He pointed to the staff list instead. The office drew people from the North, South, East and West, he said, and from both Christian and Muslim backgrounds. The most senior official, Deputy Chief of Staff Ade Ipaye, is a Muslim lawyer. Furthermore, three of the four special advisers were Muslims, including two Northerners, Maryam Uwais and Ahmad Zakari. Akande went on to list dozens of other aides by name.

“This was a truly national team. It was never a church list.”Laolu Akande, former spokesperson to Yemi Osinbajo

Akande also addressed Lawal’s claim about Dr. Okey Enelamah, whom Lawal linked to Osinbajo’s church. Akande said Enelamah headed one of Africa’s largest private equity firms when Buhari appointed him as minister. Two people in the financial services industry proposed him, Akande said, and the late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, told Osinbajo that the president wanted to appoint him. Osinbajo therefore did not nominate him. Akande added that Enelamah is alive and can confirm these facts.

On board appointments, Akande said Osinbajo had to review nominee lists while he acted as president. Any changes rested on legal grounds, such as federal character, age, qualifications or professional requirements, he said. Buhari received a full briefing on his return, Akande added, and raised no objection to the corrections.

Akande closed on a sharp note. He suggested that Lawal may still be hurting from his removal as SGF. Before Buhari asked Osinbajo to chair the investigation, Akande noted, the Senate and the Attorney-General’s report had already indicted Lawal on the same allegations. He also said Lawal inadvertently supplied evidence to the panel. “But personal grievance cannot justify the manufacture of falsehoods against a man who served with integrity,” he said.

Taken together, the exchange pits the accounts of two former insiders against each other. Sojworldnews has not independently verified either side, so readers should weigh both. Meanwhile, a reply from Lawal had not surfaced at the time of writing.

Source: statement by Laolu Akande, issued Saturday, October 17, 2026.