The
Borno State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kaka Lawan, said
on Tuesday that Boko Haram was a creation of the factional Chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, Ali Modu Sheriff.
Lawan,
who spoke at the ongoing 56th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association
in Port Harcourt, explained that the insecurity created by Sheriff in Borno few
years ago metamorphosed into Boko Haram.
Calling
for the arrest and prosecution of the factional chairman of the PDP, Lawan
specifically said that bad governance and impunity reigned during Sheriff’s
administration as the governor of the state between 2003 and 2011.
He
added that the creation of the Ministry of Religious Affairs by the then
Sheriff administration in Borno and the killing of the head of the ministry in
the 2009 turmoil worsened the level of insecurity in the state.
“Ali
Modu Sheriff was a former governor of Borno State for eight years and left the
state in a state of insecurity.
“The
issue that happened in Borno, the insecurity that brought us to this situation
we are in, was as a result of bad governance, illiteracy, lack of respect for
the rule of law, impunity in the administration of Ali Modu Sheriff and the
Federal Government then did not checkmate his excesses and it escalated to this
level.
“Up
to today, he is moving freely and nobody is talking to him. All hands must be
on deck, if actually justice must be done to the hundreds of people that were
killed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“He
(Sheriff) should be arrested. He should be investigated. He should be
interrogated for the facts that we have just mentioned in Port Harcourt here.
His records were known to everybody, even to you media men.
“The
Federal Government is aware; the state government is aware; you media men are
aware. They are not only facts; they are notorious facts. All and sundry are
aware.
“Can
he deny that fact that he was a governor between 2003 and 2011? Can he deny
that Muhammed Yusuf freely operated between 2003 and 2009 and the aberration
laws he passed?” Lawan queried.
But
Sheriff has dismissed the allegation by the commissioner, saying Lawan was not
sincere and that he was acting the script allegedly written by Governor Kashim
Shettima.
Sheriff,
who spoke through his Special Adviser of Media, Mallam Inuwa Bwala, said that
the commissioner should look inward to the government to enable him to know
those behind the Boko Haram menace in the state.
He
said, “The commissioner is talking rubbish. He’s acting the script of his
governor. Sheriff made the governor what he is today.
“Those
who are making the allegation should know that three of his (Sheriff) brothers
were killed by Boko Haram, his family is being threatened by the Boko Haram.
“The
AGF’s predecessor died in circumstances not clear. What killed him and who
killed him? The people are suspecting who is behind the killing. I pity him, he
doesn’t know what he is talking about. He is serving in a government that
created and funded Boko Haram.”
Tags
Politics