Former media aide to late PMB, Garba Shehu, has blasted former President Goodluck Jonathan for saying Boko Haram terrorists nominated late Muhammadu Buhari to represent them in their negotiations. He recently revealed that GEJ should look for a different story to tell Nigerians.
Speaking via a press statement to debunk Jonathan’s claim, Shehu pointed out that in 2014, Buhari actually escaped a bomb attack on his life by Boko Haram in Kaduna, in which his personal staff were severely injured.
According to him, GEJ’s statement against the late PMB was terrible to say the least, and if it was a political campaign ahead of 2027, the former president has started on the wrong foot.
He clarified that the dead Boko Haram leaders never nominated Buhari for such a role throughout his tenure as president.
“We are compelled to make a response to a terrible statement made on the late president Muhammadu Buhari by his predecessor in office, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, to the effect that Boko Haram had nominated him to represent them in a dialogue with government.
If this is a campaign statement towards his bid for the presidency in 2027, we want to say to him that “Mr. Jonathan, you are making a false start.
Muhammed Yusuf or Abubakar Shekau, the deceased leaders of the Boko Haram terrorist group, never nominated Muhammadu Buhari for any such role. In fact, Shekau routinely denounced and threatened Buhari, and their ideologies were in direct opposition.
In 2014, Muhammadu Buhari escaped a bomb attack on his life by Boko Haram in Kaduna, in which his personal staff suffered various degrees of injury,” it read.
He further noted that Buhari was very vocal about his fight against Boko Haram, and he did his bit to restore security to Nigeria when he was in Aso Rock.
Garba concluded by saying that despite reports that Boko Haram had nominated General Muhammadu Buhari as the mediator between them and the Federal Government of Nigeria in the proposed peace talks years ago, the retired Military General firmly denied knowledge of his nomination.
“In a statement issued by the then National Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Engr Buba Galadima, Buhari, the national leader of the CPC said he not aware of the appointment:
As at 10pm yesterday (Thursday) when I spoke with him, he said he has not even heard about it.
He revealed that Buhari, the 2011 presidential candidate of the CPC, further told him that as an elder statesman and a patriotic Nigerian, he will continue to pray until peace and tranquillity return to Nigeria.
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,” he added.
