SAN FRANCISCO, November 18, (THEWILL) – Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, Tuesday, in Maiduguri, the state capital, described the corruption allegation leveled against him by his predecessor, Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff, as laughable and absurd.
Maintaining that Modu Sheriff does not have the moral right to describe his successor as corrupt, Governor Shettima, in a statement issued by his media aide, Alhaji Isa Gusau, said the description was an “irony, laughable and absurd.”
The governor said this is so especially as it was coming from Modu Sheriff, who was already broke before becoming a governor in 2003 only to leave office as perhaps the richest man in Borno state and one of the richest former governors in the country.
According to the governor’s media aide, “I think of all Nigerians that held public offices in the country, one man that should seal his lips whenever issues of corrupt practices are being discussed is former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
“Everybody knew he was broke before he became a governor in 2003. Today, he is practically the richest former Governor in Nigeria, who was reported by Thisday Newspaper in 2012, to have acquired a jet worth N11 billion for his luxury and he was said to be the first African to have procured such a jet as an individual.”
Lampooning Modu-Sheriff further, Gusau said: “This is a man that has never flown in a commercial flight in the last 10 or more years within Nigeria because he has a fleet of jets. This is someone that cannot survive outside the corridor of power from the days of military when he was running errands in the Villa and engaging in all sorts of things, all to make money.
“It is really shocking that of all people, Sheriff can open his mouth to accuse any Nigerian of corruption let alone a good and prudent man like Governor Kashim Shettima who has won the hearts of so many with his numerous works for his people despite the security challenges in Borno.
“I am only pitying those who take Sheriff seriously from the Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, to those within the Presidency because the Sheriff we all know will dump them soon as he is through with them. Sheriff has been close to power at the centre since the days of Abacha. He was said to have been made by Abacha, but after Abacha died, did he stand by the family? Is he even with the Abacha’s today? The same Sheriff became close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the point that he was calling Obasanjo Baba but is he with Obasanjo today? When President Yar’Adua was there, Sheriff worked with him in what has become his tradition, but is he with the Yar’Adua today?”
The sttement alleged that Modu-Sheriff who is now hobnobbing with President Goodluck Jonathan was not there when the president as a Vice President was out to take-over power from the then ailing former President Shehu Yar’Adua in the interest of the nation.
Modu Sheriff and Gov. Shettima, according to the statement, parted ways because the Modu Sheriff wanted to continue to be relevant at the expense of the state rather than his claim that he wants the state to be developed.
The statement asked why Modu-Sheriff did not defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) then ,choosing to wait till now before defecting.
