Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has denied attending the World Economic Forum in South Africa in the face of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in the country.

Nigerians had reacted with criticism towards photographs of Fayemi with Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, alleging that they were at the forum which is ongoing in Cape Town.

The Federal Government had announced that it was boycotting the WEF in protest against the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, Igbere TV reports.

However, Fayemi, in a statement on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Electronic Media, Kanmi Olatoye, said he was at another event in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

He said: “Contrary to some misleading online reports, Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was not at the World Economic Forum in South Africa.

“Rather, the governor is in South Africa to honour an invitation by a long-time friend and one of Nigeria’s most celebrated journalists, Mr Dele Olojode, at Africa in the World Festival of Ideas, which held in Stellenbosch, a university town in South Africa’s Western Cape province.”

He added that, “More importantly, the event already held before the decision of the Federal Government to boycott the WEF programme.”

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