The spokesman of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Garba Shehu, last night described as fake the story by a national daily that the former President fled the country and now in exile.

This is as former President Buhari has congratulated his successor, President Bola Tinubu for emerging as the new Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.

Reacting to a newspaper report that Buhari has gone on exile after handing over to President Tinubu, Shehu said there was no veracity in the report and advised media offices to always confirm their reports.

He said that Buhari is with his family in his Daura hometown of Katsina state.

According to him, “For misleading the otherwise credible newspaper to falsely report on their front page that former President Muhammadu Buhari has “fled” and on “exile” when he is currently at home with family in Daura, Katsina State, BusinessDay newspaper should sack their reporter who didn’t do the job of checking his facts.

“BusinessDay should think 10 times before running any information from the particular reporter and verify it before believing him. Every platform has tools to verify any information and we don’t expect anything less from BusinessDay.

“If they had browsed through different sources, they will have seen reports of the former President having come back home and enjoying the company of his family.

“A single fake news in a newspaper has the capability to destroy a reputation built on years of hard work.”