The Presidency has denied insinuations that President Muhammadu Buhari made some anti-Igbo utterances in a recent interview with the BBC Hausa Service.

A pirate radio station- Radio Biafra had alleged that it got a recording from a BBC interview where the President expressed some sentiments against the Igbo ethnic group.

On Wednesday, July 15, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, described the claim as “completely false, malicious and slanderous.”

Shehu said the voice in the audio recording was not that of the President, adding that the station’s claim that it got the recording from a BBC interview was totally untrue.

He released a statement which read in part: “President Buhari has not had any interview with the BBC’s Hausa Service since his assumption of office as alleged by the agents of disunity behind the pirate radio station’s inflammatory and divisive broadcast.

“The last interview he had with the BBC Hausa Service, lasting not more than five minutes, was on the day he was declared winner and given his Certificate of Return as the President-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“Thankfully, the BBC Hausa Service Editor, Mr. Mansor Liman has distanced the BBC from the false interview clip being ascribed by the pirate radio station to President Buhari.

“President Buhari is the President of all Nigerians and will continue to treat all citizens on the basis of fairness, equality and equity.”