Former Aviation Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, has defended the former governor of Borno state and the Vice Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Kashim Shettima over allegation of being a terrorists’ commander.
Fani-Kayode described Senator Shettima as “a refined, decent and godly man, who simply want to help his nation and ensure we move forward as a people.”
One of the spokespersons for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, had alleged that Shettima was aiming at establishing an office for the Boko Haram terrorists at the presidential villa if the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu wins the election in 2023.
According to Melaye, in a decent country, Shettima “ought to be in jail to pay for the blood of innocent citizens and the deprivation that lawful Nigerians have suffered from his private army.”
But responding to the allegation through a statement Thursday in Abuja, Fani-Kayode said Melaye’s allegation against Shettima had been investigated over and over again and nothing was found against the APC Vice presidential candidate.
The former Minister said: “The allegation against Shetimma is absurd, it us designed to terrify the people and make them feel that APC is a party of terrorists and that our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a man that condone terrorism. Dino’s statement is a direct attack on if Vice Presudential candidate. It has no bases.
“This allegation has been investigated over and over again. All these while there have been no evidence adduced to suggest that it is true abd actually it not true.
“Senator Kassim Shetimma is a refined, decent and godly man, who simply want to help his nation and ensure we move forward as a people. If you look at his record in Borno State as a governor, before he went to serve as Senator, you will see what he did.
“If you look at his successor in office – Prof. Baba Gana Zulum, he too is doing a great job in Borno. That is not a legacy of a terrorist. What we have in Borno is a legacy of a great leader, that is what Shetimma stands for. For anybody to try to smear his name this way, is a reflection of that person more than anything else. Not only was it a reflection of Melaye himself, it is also a reflection of the man (Atiku) he is speaking for.
“The truth is that Kassim Shetimma is 100 times a better man and we will prove that at the polls. We will defeat Atiku even in his local government area in Adamawa state by the grace of God.”
