Shettima can’t be distracted by mischief — Aide

Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State cannot be distracted from his focused leadership by cheap blackmail, his Special Adviser on Communications and Strategy, Mal Isa Gusau, said in a statement yesterday.

Gusau was responding to a claim by the publisher of the Kaduna based newspaper, Tukur Mamu, suggesting that Governor Shettima was in collision course with President Muhammadu Buhari for naming an estate in Maiduguri after Sen. Bola Tinubu.

“Mamu needs to be reminded that Governor Shettima has survived far more senior mischief makers and came out stronger,” Gusau said.

“In May 2016, posters where mischievously pasted all over Abuja and Kaduna saying Governor Shettima was aspiring to be president with Governor Rochas as his running mate in 2019. Governor Shettima promptly wrote the Inspector General of Police and the Director-General of DSS, calling for investigations on those behind the posters and at the end of the day, some persons connected with the mischief were arrested.

“And soon after Shettima hosted Asiwaju Tinubu to commission projects and named an estate after him, a group came out saying the motive was to spite ex-Governor Ali Modu Sheriff. Only yesterday, Tukur Mamu came up with a new one alleging that hosting Tinubu was a crime against Buhari. For God’s sake, what is wrong with hosting Tinubu when as the governor said, no single individual helped him politically as much as Tinubu did before the 2015 elections?

“Is Tinubu not a founding leader of the APC? If Tinubu is considered an enemy of President Buhari, how come he was hosted by the president in London,” Gusau asked.