Shettima: Why northern presidential aspirant forged my voice

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State said yesterday that a presidential aspirant from the North is bent on destroying his personality and therefore went to the extent of forging his voice to cause disaffection between him and the people in the South East.

A phone conversation purportedly between Governor Shettima and his Ogun State counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, went viral online on Sunday. The two people in the conversation berated the Igbo for their continued stay in other parts of the country and still agitating for the state of Biafra.

The two impersonators also insulted President Muhammadu Buhari, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar; Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; Imo State governor, Mr Rochas Okorocha.

Reacting through his Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Isa Umar Gusau, Shettima said his voice was different from that of the caller, who claimed to be a member of the PDP.

To prove the difference, Isa placed the purported audio conversation aside a video of Shettima speaking to the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

According to him, “The two voices were clearly different. The caller, who was being presented as Mr Shettima, speaks very fast as against the relatively slower tone of Shettima. The caller does not have any trace of Kanuri accent, whereas Mr Shettima has some Kanuri accent.

“In the conversation, the caller addressed his recipient as ‘Kunle’ without the prefix, ‘Your Excellency’ as Shettima is known to use in his conversations with fellow governors.

“The caller went ahead to contradict himself, as he praised and castigated President Buhari while also insulting national leaders that include the Sultan of Sokoto, Mr Amaechi, Governor Rochas Okorocha and insulted the people of the South East,” he said.

According to Gusau, the aim of those behind the phony phone call was to incite people of Southern parts of the country against Governor Shettima.

“We are aware that one particular presidential aspirant from the North has declared a war to destroy the reputation of some persons, including Governor Shettima. Late last week, a group working for him came up with a series of questions claiming they were products of a paper delivered by a non-existent Professor Ahmad Isah Harun. The questions were all direct attacks on the reputation of Governor Shettima. This week, the group followed up with a stage-managed telephone conversation.

“We believe more of these mischief will come as the aspirant, for whatever reason, sees Shettima as his major problem even when the governor has neither indicated interest for the 2019 Presidential elections nor has he the resources to prosecute such an ambition,” he said.