Ali Modu-Sheriff has denied having any ties with the dreaded Boko
Haram terrorist sect, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari would have
arrested him if he had any connection with the blood-lust group.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ThisDay, Sheriff stressed
that speculations about his sponsorship of terrorists, exist only as a
figment of the imagination of those blackmailing him and wondered why
those behind the rumour did not raise the matter when he was in the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
The former Borno governor, who claimed that it was immediately he
left the APC that he was labelled a Boko Haram sponsor, reminded
Nigerians that he had also been a victim of the Boko Haram attacks which
led to the death of his blood brother as well as other relations.
In his words: Well, you see, Nigeria is a country of laws.
Nigeria is a country that has the largest black population in the world
and nobody today in this country is above the law. It was fiction and
imagination of the writers. Let me ask you, I was the governor of Borno
State for eight years and, when I was a governor, there was no local
government that was under Boko Haram.
"The issue of Boko Haram came when the government at that time,
under President Umaru Yar’Adua, destroyed their mosque and, that was
it. They succeeded in killing three people when I was the governor and,
do you know who those three people are? One of them was my blood
brother, same father and same mother; second one that they killed was
the gubernatorial candidate of my political party; third one was
Chairman of my party who was also my first cousin.
I have never seen anybody in my life that was connected to Boko
Haram apart from their leader who was arrested by the military then.
The military invited me to see him for the first time in their barracks.
If for any reason I had any connection with Boko Haram, I would have
been arrested. I am not above the law but you know media is a very
strong institution; if your enemy or the people who are afraid of you go
to the media and put a false report, the author will write based on
information that was given to them by people who believe that unless
they dent your image, they will not get what they want politically.
Otherwise, there is no way I could be linked to Boko Haram because by
my disposition, my background and where I come from, I have nothing to
do with Boko Haram.
Boko Haram wanted to kill me all the time because they believed
that I was the one that reported them to President Musa Yar’Adua to
destroy their enclave when it was destroyed that time. It was after I
left government that they moved to their different camps and bushes. Why
should they kill my brother? Why should they kill my family if I am a
sponsor of Boko Haram? Is there anywhere in the world that you sponsor
something to kill you? But unfortunately, the wrong information was
circulated to the media by our enemies and, unfortunately, I am not the
talking type, so along the line, they kept on fabricating the same lies
until it stuck. Let me give you a typical example.
"Just a week ago, all the social media planted my picture,
showing me with the card of APC purporting that I was joining the party.
At that time nobody wrote that I was Boko Haram, only that Sheriff is
going back to APC. When we registered with APC we went to our villages
to do it, that village they are showing on the social media was a
village that was taken over by Boko Haram for the past three years, so
how could I have gone there to register? Few days after I became the
Chairman of the PDP, Ali Sheriff is now Boko Haram; so if you are in APC
you are not a Boko Haram.
Throughout my period in APC nobody said I was Boko Haram.
Immediately I left the APC, I was termed Boko Haram, therefore you could
understand that Nigeria is a very interesting country and the fact that
today you cannot do without the media and whosoever has the machinery
of the media, unless by chance like the way you have talked to me, they
would still be disseminating every kind of stories but nobody will ask
why is it that when Ali Modu Sheriff went back to APC, nobody said he is
Boko Haram but today that he is PDP Chairman, he is Boko Haram.
"To cut the story short, I have nothing to do with Boko Haram
in my entire life. Nobody in my family or relation is Boko Haram or
close to any Boko Haram member. These people that wanted to kill me? Up
till today, if they have the chance they will kill me because they think
I reported them to Yar’Adua who leveled their places of worship and,
along the line their leader was killed. And that is my crime and why
they want to kill me but people that are afraid of me changed the story
and they keep on doing it. Every day they write different things, but
you and I know that nobody is above the laws of Nigeria.
"I believe today that President Buhari, even if it is his son
or blood brother that is Boko Haram member, he will arrest and prosecute
him. That includeds me. So the allegation is the figment of the
imagination of the writers."
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