By Lanre Oloyede
The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has denied allegation of terrorism sponsorship leveled against its vice presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, by the spokesperson of Atiku-Okowa presidential campaign council, Senator Dino Melaye.
Former Minister of Aviation and Director Special Media of APC Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, described the allegation by Senator Melaye as absurdity trumped up to terrify Nigerians and portray APC as a terrorists party.
In a press release made available to journalists Thursday in Abuja, Mr Fani-Kayode, maintained that Melaye’s allegation has no bases and lacked evidence to authenticate its veracity.
“The allegation against Shettima is absurd, it is designed to terrify the people and make them feel that APC is a party of terrorists and that our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a man that condone terrorism.
“Dino’s statement is a direct attack on our Vice Presidential candidate. It has no bases. This allegation has been investigated over and over again. All these while there have been no evidence adduced to suggest that it is true and actually it not true,” FFK said.
In continuing, he said: “Senator Kassim Shetimma is a refined, decent and godly man, who simply want to help his nation and ensure we move forward as a people. If you look at his record in Borno State as a governor, before he went to serve as Senator, you will see what he did.
“If you look at his successor in office – Prof. Baba Gana Zulum, he too is doing a great job in Borno. That is not a legacy of a terrorist. What we have in Borno is a legacy of a great leader, that is what Shetimma stands for. For anybody to try to smear his name this way, is a reflection of that person more than anything else. Not only was it a reflection of Melaye himself, it is also a reflection of the man (Atiku) he is speaking for.
“I can tell you that Atiku Abubakar is a traitor who continuously betrayed everybody that has worked with him, including President Obasanjo, late Gen. Yar’Adua, late President Yar’Adua, including APC and the PDP. His record of public office is betrayal. At the end of the day, he’ll betray PDP again. You remember, he betrayed the governors of his party. He broke his words and Dino Melaye is saying this is the man that should be President of our country. No way.
“The truth is that Kassim Shetimma is 100 times a better man and we will prove that at the polls. We will defeat Atiku even in his local government area in Adamawa state by the grace of God.
The aviation Minister further stated that Melaye was only speaking for his presidential candidate who lacks moral substance and may likely compromise Nigerians’ moral sensibilities if he gets elected into office.
He said Atiku would likely open offices for gays and sodomy in the Villa if elected as president.
“Dino Melaye outburst is absolute nonsense. These are nonsensical words, spoken on behalf of a nonsensical man, who is running a nonsensical campaign.
“The truth of the matter is that the person that will set up all sorts of extra-constitutional offices in the Villa, if ever is able to get there is Atiku Abubakar himself.
“The first kind of office he will set up is the one exclusively for gays and Sodomites, who really don’t have affinity or whatsoever or liken to decency. That is what we need to fear, we don’t want Sodomite in thr Villa.
“The assertion that Dino Melaye is making, it is at the consequences of the failure of his candidate’s campaign within and outside Nigeria.
“They went to America, they went to France, they went all over the world, crawling in the corridors of those in power in the places they went and nobody was prepared to see them or discuss with them.
“So they are drowning fast and instead of focusing on the issues and stay at home and work hard, the way our candidate (Tinubu) is going. What they are doing is throwing stones, hauling bricks at us, insulting us and making absurd claims about our presidential candidate and our vice presidential candidate.
“But let me remind them that at the end, it is Nigerians who will decide. It will not be decided in Paris or Washington or Dubai, it will be decided by Nigerians. All I want them to know is that we are going to defeat them at the polls and that is what matters to us.
Recall that Melaye had in a statement alleged that Kashim Shettima is a “grand commander of bandits”, the criminal elements unleashing terror across the country.
Melaye further alleged that Shettima was aiming at establishing an office for the Boko Haram terrorists at the presidential villa if the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu wins the election in 2023.
“Overwhelmed by the conviviality of a civil atmosphere, Kashim Shettima, the Grand Commander of bandits and the running mate of the Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress ( APC), who has gathered enough funds from his field soldiers to be so intoxicated as to engage in a verbal gibberish that is only permissible in Sambisa Forest.
“He has been seen in a footage where he was exciting a rented crowd with whimsical pot shots at His Excellency Atiku Abubakar.
“It was the same hallucination that made Shettima to have defined an illusory presidency where he would create an office for Boko Haram in the villa, with him in charge of the security of our precious Nigeria.
“The emergence of the garrulous, intemperate and indecorous Shettima is another manifestation of the failure of APC, which after weeks of shilly-shally to fill the slot of a running mate ultimately settled for a rustic jejune whose concept of a suit is the sartorial equivalence of Babanriga”.
The main opposition party in the country also called on Nigerians to critically assess the former Borno State governor and the ruling party before casting their votes in 2023.
According to the party, in a decent country, Shettima “ought to be in jail to pay for the blood of innocent citizens and the deprivation that lawful Nigerians have suffered from his private army.
“Nigerians must reject Shettima and his gang, because as Bob Marley sang, no one can free us but ourselves”.
