Sheriff
A former Deputy governor of Borno State, Alhaji Adamu Shettima Yuguda Dibal, has accused Senator Ali Modu Sheriff of misleading President Goodluck Jonathan on the chances of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and President Jonathan in the forthcoming general elections in the state.
Dibal, who was deputy to former Ali Modu Sheriff for eight years, said he was ashamed watching and hearing his former boss tell President Jonathan that the incumbent governor of the state, Kashim Shettima and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC cannot get up to 30 percent of total votes in the state.
Former Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff had boasted during the PDP presidential campaign rally in Maiduguri that Borno State will be delivered to the president and the PDP in the February elections.
Reacting in an interview with Daily Trust, Dibal, who said he rarely grant interviews, said it was time he spoke because he listened to his former boss telling lies before Mr President at the PDP rally and felt really bad, asking why the former governor will mislead the president.
“It is unfair, so I decided to tell the world what the truth is. I worked with Ali Modu Sheriff for eight years as his deputy when he was governor. I have never joined issues with him even in private, but I felt really ashamed when I watched him speaking before the president at the PDP rally that Governor Kashim Shettima can’t get 30 percent of votes in Borno and I asked myself whether he was talking about the Borno we all know or a different place.
“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, because it is not in my character, but we have a duty to tell the truth for the sake of Allah, for our conscience and for posterity. I know Sheriff very well. I was part of all his politics as governor for eight years. I know his capacity and what he can do or what he cannot do. What I know is that he is completely unpopular as the reality on ground shows”, Dibal said.
The APC chieftain also accused Sheriff of trying to save his face when he alluded the scanty crowd at the campaign venue to be due to the security cleaning at the venue, adding that “he was only trying to cover his face; he must have been ashamed by the outing”.
Speaking further on what to expect in the February elections, Dibal said if Sheriff gets 30 percent of votes for the PDP, he will consider Kashim Shettima and the people of Borno too generous.
“In 2011, Sheriff was governor of the state; I was his deputy and everybody knew that he was close to the president to the extent that he was asked to nominate a minister of state and he nominated his sister-in-law.
“But with all the powers at his disposal, all the money and influence as governor of Borno State, he couldn’t deliver up 25 percent for Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 elections. Sheriff lost his own elections for Borno Central senatorial seat and anybody he opposed like Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume won their elections after they left us and moved to PDP.
“The two House of Reps seats that PDP won in Jere and Maiduguri Metropolis were all based on protest votes by those within our own ANPP then and also other citizens of the zone who were all against Sheriff. We lost two Senate seats to PDP when he was governor. The ANPP won the governorship because of the goodwill of Kashim Shettima which he built over the years.
“We won the governorship with Kashim Shettima as the candidate not because of Sheriff. My former boss knew Shettima had tremendous goodwill, which was why he made sure Kashim was adopted as candidate when we had no candidate with few days to the 2011 elections.
“I alone contested against the late Fannami Gubio in the first primaries, which Gubio won. When Gubio was killed and Kashim was adopted as consensus candidate and we were going for ratification, I opted not to contest against him, because I knew he could deliver the ANPP for us.
Praising Shettima for the way he has handled the affairs of the state since 2011, Dibal said he has been able to win the hearts of the entire people of Borno State, including those in the opposition, because of the manner he is competently managing the security situation, his level of intelligence, humility and depth of understanding of Borno’s problems as well as his concrete steps towards addressing the problems.
Dibal said Shettima is fully in charge of the state, adding that all attempts to undermine the governor by Sheriff failed, especially with the formation the APC and his quest to take the structures of the party in the state.
“First, when the APC was formed, Sheriff did everything possible to take over the party in Borno State when the caretaker executives were to be formed. At one point, he came into Borno with a contingent to swear in a list of executive, but that one failed and at the end, Shettima’s interest prevailed.
“Two, after caretaker committees were formed by Shettima, Sheriff did everything possible to make the APC national headquarters reject the caretaker committee, but it didn’t work. When it was time to have elected state executives, again Shettima emerged victorious. When it was time for national executives, all those who aligned themselves with Sheriff lost, he said”.
Asked if Sheriff’s membership of the PDP was a threat to Shettima’s second term ambition, Dibal fired back, reminding the journalist how he (Sheriff) went to PDP, boasting that he was going to the PDP with the soul of APC.
“When Sheriff was going into PDP, he boasted that he was going with the soul of the APC, but who did he go with? Out of the three senators representing Borno, Shettima ended up getting all of them into APC, including two that were in PDP. Out of 10 members of the House of Reps, two were of the PDP and APC had eight, Sheriff only went with three to PDP and Shettima held five, all of them very strong. Out of 28 members of the State Assembly, Sheriff only went with about five or less. He didn’t go with any party executive in any of the 27 local government areas except one or so.
“The entire state Exco remained with Shettima except two for one zone. Sheriff went with only two out 20 commissioners. All former deputy governors, including myself, didn’t follow Sheriff. All former commissioners, past and serving chairmen of LGAs and party chairmen remained with Kashim.
“In fact, even close friends of Sheriff like Adam and Abiso that were known with him for over 30 years didn’t go with him. He left the APC completely naked. How can this same Sheriff say the person that kept defeating him at all stages will not get 30 percent?” Dibal asked.
According to the former deputy governor, Borno is now different, explaining the dwindling political fortunes of Ali Modu Sheriff, who was elected senator and governor twice.
“The pains inflicted by Boko Haram have changed the political thinking of people not just in Borno but in the whole northern Nigeria and to a large extent, the southwest. Borno is not what it used to be when we were in office some years back. I am always in Maiduguri; I know what is on ground. Sheriff operates from Abuja. Borno is fully APC; this is the true situation of things”.
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