Mallam Garba Shehu, the spokesperson for the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, has refuted a statement by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that Buhari was once nominated by the notorious terrorist group Boko Haram to negotiate with the federal government during Jonathan’s regime.
Recall, President Jonathan made the claim on Friday, October 3rd at the public presentation of Scars, a book written by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (rtd.) in Abuja.
He maintained that Boko Haram mentioned Buhari after the administration had set up committees.
Jonathan’s words ”‘One of the committees we set up then, the Boko Haram, nominated Buhari to lead their team to negotiate with the government’
In a swift reaction to President Jonathan’s statement on Friday, Shehu said, ‘If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say that Jonathan is making a false start.
Shehu said that neither Muhammed Yusuf nor Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the insurgent group, ever nominated Buhari.
He added that Shekau frequently denounced and threatened Buhari, who narrowly escaped a Boko Haram bomb attack in Kaduna in 2014.
Shehu recalled that Buhari had, at the time, denied knowledge of any nomination.
He cited Buba Galadima, the former National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), remarks that Buhari described the reports as ‘speculation’ and insisted no one had contacted him.
‘’What led to the misleading information was that a faction of the terrorist group, possibly sponsored by Buhari’s opponents, staged a press conference in Maiduguri, Borno State, through a certain Abu Mohammed Ibn Abdulaziz, who claimed to be the Boko Haram commander in charge of Southern and Northern Borno, saying that the sect would prefer the former military leader, General Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Yobe State governor and the then Senator, now late Bukar Abba Ibrahim, first Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, Shettima Ali Monguno, also late, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Insecurity in the North-East, Ambassador Gaji Gatimari, and other prominent members of the Borno Emirate to mediate between them and the Federal Government.
‘Abdulaziz was roundly condemned by the leaders of Boko Haram, who claimed that he had “no mandate of their leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau.
‘Speaking on the issue, the then CPC National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin (now late), lambasted President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for latching on Buhari’s alleged nomination for political reasons.
‘Fashakin described Buhari’s purported nomination as the latest gambit in the desire of this organically corrupt PDP-led Federal Government in diverting the attention of the unsuspecting Nigerian public from the ongoing massive looting of their common patrimony’.
He told Jonathan to ‘look for a better story’ if he is seeking political relevance ahead of 2027.
