Buhari would have arrested me if I had links with Boko Haram - Ali Modu Sheriff

Ahamefula Ogbu and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The newly appointed National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu- Sheriff has said there was no link between him and the dreaded terrorists group, Boko Haram.

Ali Modu Sheriff

Modu Sheriff whose emergence this week as the new man at the helms of affairs in the opposition party has been viewed by critics as a minus, said such insinuation about his sponsorship of terrorists exists only as a figment of the imagination of the authors of the blackmailing script.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with THISDAY, the former Borno State governor reminded Nigerians, he had also been a victim of the Boko Haram attacks which led to the death of his blood brother as well as other relations.

“Boko Haram wanted to kill me at a time because they believed that I was the one that reported them to President Umaru Yar’Adua to destroy their enclave. It was after I left government that they moved to their different camps and bushes. Why should they kill my brother? Why should they kill my family if I am a sponsor of Boko Haram? Is there anywhere in the world that you sponsor people to kill you?”

Sheriff said Nigerians should ask those out to blackmail him why they did not raise the matter when he was in APC, adding that it was immediately he left the APC that he was labelled Boko Haram sponsor.

“Let me give you a typical example. Just a week ago, all the social media planted my picture showing me with the card of APC joining the party. At that time, nobody wrote that I was Boko Haram. They said Sheriff was going back to APC; they were showing a card when we registered with APC before I left the party. We went to our villages to do it; that village they are showing on the social media was a village that was taken over by Boko Haram for the past three years. So, how could I have gone there to register?

“Few days after I became the Chairman of the PDP, Ali Sheriff is now Boko Haram; so if you are in APC you are not a Boko Haram. Throughout my period in APC, nobody said I was Boko Haram. Immediately I left the APC, I was termed Boko Haram,” he said.

Sheriff who was a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and one of its leading lights before he fell out with the leadership sometime last year, said he would have been prosecuted by President Muhammadu Buhari if the allegations against me were true.

“Nobody in my family or relation is Boko Haram or close to any Boko Haram member. These people that wanted to kill me, up till today, if they have the chance, they will kill me because they think I reported them to Yar’Adua who leveled their places of worship and along the line, their leader was killed.

“And that was my crime and why they wanted to kill me. But people that are afraid of me changed the story and they keep on doing it. Every day, they write different things but you and I know that nobody is above the laws of Nigeria. I believe that President Buhari, even if it is his son or blood brother that is a Boko Haram, he will arrest and prosecute him. So the allegation is the figment of the imagination of the writers,” he said.

On what he intends to do to restore lost hope in the PDP, Sheriff said he would  hit the road as soon he concludes the handing over, pacifying aggrieved members, asking them to come back.

“It is a home they built and it is a home that they should not leave. I will visit the zones, I will visit the states and I will visit individuals whose sacrifices made the party what it was and insha Allah, we will succeed in rebuilding the party.

“PDP will be rebuilt, will be reunited, PDP will come together. I formed a party from the scratch that won elections all over Nigeria; the UNCP which was short-lived was built by me and we won elections all over Nigeria.

“I won election to the senate and 80 per cent of those that won election at that time were from UNCP. I, by the grace of God, with few other leaders like Jerry Useni who is still alive and Issah Mohammed built it together and it won election all over Nigeria.  So, I have the capacity to rebuild PDP,” he said.

Buhari would have arrested me if I had links with Boko Haram - Ali Modu Sheriff