I NEVER GAVE ANYBODY ARMS – MODU SHERIFF

Former Borno State governor Ali Modu Sheriff has described as cheap
blackmail media reports linking him and some politicians to the alleged arming
of militia groups that later metamorphosed into terrorist groups, even as he
challenged former vice president Atiku Abubakar to provide proof of his claim to the
effect that he had links with terrorists.

The former governor, who made these
comments yesterday in a BBC Hausa Service 
programme monitored in Abuja, was reacting to media reports
credited to former vice president Atiku , who had also spoken with the
BBC Hausa Service.

 Modu
Sheriff was alleged to be one of the governors who gave arms to militia groups
when he was in power.

 He denied
ever arming any group, or giving guns to individuals for whatever purposes, he
said, adding that he had never handled a gun himself and so could not have
given same to people.

“I do not want
to join issues with Atiku Abubakar. I used to
respect him and I hope he does not squander the goodwill he enjoys from some of
us with his careless remarks. I do not see him as an enemy, as I have no
ambition to contest the position he is seeking, which is the presidency, but he
should not take us for granted, as we have the capacity to match him,” Modu
Sheriff said.

The former governor further accused Atiku of being so
desperate in his quest to be president that he seems to be envious of the
rising political profile of some politicians from the north, who may have the
potential to stop him. He, however, stressed that he had no presidential
ambition and, as such, does not expect Atiku to include him in his seeming
political game of blackmail.

Sheriff,
popularly called SAS, described Atiku as posing a greater risk to democracy and
the nation than any of the persons he is attacking, given his antecedents.

 “I respect
Atiku,” Modu Sheriff said, “but he should be cautious in his remarks, which
sometimes portray him as un-statesmanly.”

The former governor argued that security reports since the
insurgency started inBorno State had absolved him, and that Atiku
was not in a position to know how the presidency, in collaboration with the Borno State government,
had been handling the issues because of his estrangement in the scheme of
things. As such, Atiku is not in a position to advise him or any governor, he stated.

Apparently irked
by unfolding political bickering in the north-east zone and the roles the
former vice president has been playing in the crisis rocking Adamawa State, Modu
Sheriff cautioned against the politicisation of the crisis. He called on
stakeholders to give useful counsel to government, and stop playing to the
gallery in a bid to settle scores.

“It is a sad
commentary,” he said, “that the north-east has remained the most underdeveloped
of all the political zones in the country, in spite of the enormous endowments
and the opportunities, most of which were wasted during the tenure of Atiku Abubakar as the vice president.”

The former Borno governor, who is the
chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP),  attributed
the remarks credited to the former vice president to the seeming battle for the future
control of the political soul of the north-east, irrespective of political
leanings,  and said no amount of intrigues or blackmail could unsettle him
or salvage the dwindling political fortunes of Atiku and his like, who wasted
the golden opportunities given to them by God to
be of good service to fellow countrymen.

Atiku had allegedly
said, on a BBC Hausa Service interview on Saturday, that he had personally
called some governors, including former Governor Sheriff, and cautioned them on the
political repercussions of arming political thugs that have today metamorphosed
into terrorist groups.