Akpoti-Uduaghan said the suspect had a lot to say about his relationship with Governor Bello and his Chief of Staff, Asuku Jamiu.
The Kogi Central Senatorial Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has urged security agencies in the country to investigate Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and his aides for shielding terrorists.
Akpoti-Uduaghan stated this in her reaction to a release by the state government which accused her of sponsoring terrorists and asking security agencies to investigate her.
Speaking on an Arise TV Morning programme in Abuja, the social entrepreneur said the Bello-led government had continued to intimidate the opposition in the state by way of threats of violence which she said were recorded on video.
Bello through his Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, had accused her of sponsoring terror, saying there was no reason for her to have called for the release of one Shafiu who was recently arrested in controversial circumstances.
Shafiu was reportedly rearrested a few days ago by men of the Nigerian Navy led by one Lt. Charles from the Naval base camp in Okene, Kogi state.
Although Shafiu has now been allegedly handed over to the Department of State Services DSS due to the controversy that trailed his arrest by the Navy, Akpoti-Uduaghan said the suspect had a lot to say about his relationship with Governor Bello and his Chief of Staff, Asuku Jamiu.
She also alleged in a petition to the security agencies that before Shafiu’s arrest, she had received information from state government sources that Bello was trying to plant exhibits in her country home in order to justify a raid of her house and accuse her of terrorism.
According to her, the petition to the security agencies was long before the re-arrest of Shafiu. She said; “From the information we gathered, Shafiu was a death-row inmate at the Custodial Centre in Suleja. He was granted pardon by Gov. Yahaya Bello in the lead up to the 2019 general election.
“Shafiu had long been with them. We have the pictures and an audio clip which I sent to you (Arise TV). In the pictures, you could see Shafiu severally with the governor and the Chief of Staff. He was still with them as at the time the Owo Church massacre happened and as of the time the Kuje Custodial Centre was attacked.
“Shafiu only left them a few days ago and declared support for the PDP. He equally organized a peace rally where he sensitized youths about the futility of violence and then he was picked up days later.
“My pleas to the DSS is that they should provide Shafiu with enormous security so that fifth columnists will not have access to silence him, because he has a lot to say about his relationship with Gov Bello.
“I had never met or knew Shafiu before the Trademore Estate incident. It was when I read about it in the news that I began to ask questions and I was told how he used to work for Bello and how he only recently declared for the PDP and even organized a peace rally.
“I will appeal to Nigerians to discountenance the statement from the Kogi state Government. It holds no water. I do not know Shafiu, I have never met him in person. But I will also say this. As a citizen of Nigeria, Shafiu is free to decamp.
“Shafiu was an inmate granted pardon by Gov. Yahaya Bello. Now, the nature of that pardon, I am not too sure whether it was gazetted as stipulated by the constitution. The next thing was that Shafiu was hobnobbing around the Kogi State Government House. In the pictures I sent to you, you would see one where Shafiu, in a yellow shirt, stood behind Gov. Yahaya Bello right in the middle of security agents. In the other pictures, you would see Shafiu with Bello’s Chief of Staff, Asuku. You could see that they have a fairly good, cordial relationship for someone to mingle with state officials at that level.
“Now, the statement which ties him to me and the Owo massacre and the Kuje prison attack. Owo massacre took place on June 5 while the Kuje attack happened on July 5, if I am not mistaken and on these days I was actually in California in the US because I left immediately after my primaries which was on May 30th and I only returned to Nigeria on August 20. Now, at the time of these attacks, Shafiu was with Yahaya Bello. He was in Government House almost every day.
“He was living in the house of the Chief of Staff. So, if anyone is to be responsible for the massacre in Owo and the attack on Kuje Prison, it should be Yahaya Bello that has questions to answer in conjunction with his Chief of Staff because Shafiu was with them. They released him from prison for God knows what. Shafiu was on death row and the best a governor could do was to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. I do not think a governor has the right to outrightly free a death-row inmate.
“Shafiu has however refused to be used for further violence and so he and other youths put together a project known as ‘Say No to Violence ‘ which I got to know about just two days ago. This call for peace was taken round the traditional rulers, mosques and churches in Ebira land and this infuriated Yahaya Bello”, she stated.
The PDP candidate who is nursing a baby, also made a case for adequate consideration for women in politics, saying it is hard combining the duties of a woman with the Nigerian brand of politicking.
According to her, she has also alerted security agencies to her planned visit home.
Asked what went wrong between her and Bello, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she had never been friends with the governor.
She said she only joined the All Progressives Congress APC for two months in the last dispensation because she wanted to strengthen advocacy for the revival of Ajaokuta Steel Complex.
“Yahaya Bello and I were never friends. It was just that I was told to join the party if I wanted to advance the advocacy for Ajaokuta – that I had to stop granting interviews and seemingly attacking the government over the projected sale of the steel complex and that if I wanted to make any impact, I needed to join politics, become a legislator and through that, I will be able to make the necessary reforms and call attention to the things that matter. That was why I joined the APC then and I spent maximum of two months because Bello told me he had his chosen candidates and that he was not going to support me and he was not going to guarantee a free and fair primaries. He told me to his face”.
Reacting to what Natasha has said in her interview about Governor Yahaya Bello, Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, said the state government would respond appropriately to debunk all the allegations.