Following allegations by the All progressives Congress (APC) that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led federal Government was planning on producing a fake Abubakar Shekau – leader of the Boko haram terror group – in order to claim glory, the Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose has challenged the opposition party to produce the original Shekau since it seemed to know more about the sect than anyone.
Speaking via a statement issued on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 by his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said the insinuations by the APC proved that it actually knows thise who are behind the Islamist sect.
He also noted that the APC had not issued any statement commending the Federal Government and the military for its recent victories over the insurgents, stating categorically that “It is obvious that APC does not want the insurgency to end.”
The statement read in parts:
“Instead of commending the soldiers and encouraging them, what the APC people are doing is to blackmail the military and one wonders why a party will want to take over power by supporting killing of innocent Nigerians.
“With the onslaught on the Boko Haram by our gallant soldiers, the APC appears to have lost the game of using the insurgency to campaign against President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Instead of them to face this reality, they have come up with this criminal assertion that a fake leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, was being presented before Nigerians by the government, in order to claim winning the war on terrorism.
“They are also claiming the fake Shekau might become a tool to blackmail members of the opposition by coaching the phantom terror chief to say he was working for its presidential candidate, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, in order to link him to terrorism.
“With this statement coming from the APC, it is clear that the party knows what we don’t know about Boko Haram. It also indicates that the APC people do not want the Boko Haram insurgency to end so that they can continue to make political gains from it.”
Fayose concluded by saying the APC should “simply produce the original Shekau that they know because you can only recognise fake when you know the original.”
