President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday returned to Abuja after a successful four-day working visit to Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey. It was reported that the President’s official aircraft which took off from Ataturk airport, Istanbul at about 12 p.m (Turkish time) local time, landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja at 4.05p.m.
Buhari, accompanied by his wife, Aisha, was received at the airport by senior government officials, including his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Inspector-General of Police, Idris Ibrahim, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Mohammad Bello and other presidential aides. While in Ankara, Buhari was hosted by the Turkish President for “a fairly long one-on-one meeting’’, on Thursday, before the bilateral meeting that involved their ministers and members of their delegations.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the President’s Spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, said the outing was Buhari’s first visit to Turkey since his election in 2015, but the second meeting with Erdogan who as Prime Minister visited Abuja in March, 2016. He said that Buhari’s objective during both visits focused on issues of security and anti-terrorism; agricultural cooperation and trade cooperation. Others were education and health; transport and connectivity; energy sector cooperation and increased private sector participation. Shehu noted that the visit had achieved quite a lot on the stated objectives.
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