Shema sails with hook, line, sinker
From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari may have unwittingly played into the hands of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) following the recent decision of his government to discontinue the seven-year-long trial of former Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema over the sum of N11 billion he allegedly misappropriated while in office.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) at the Ministry of Justice, Abdulrahman Umar, who briefed reporters on the development explained that the Attorney General of Katsina State exercised his power under section 211 of the 1999 Constitution to discontinue Shema’s prolonged trial along with two other co-accused persons.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had taken Shema to court at the instance of the Katsina State government based on a petition.
Prior to the commencement of the trial, a judicial commission of inquiry instituted by the government had indicted Shema accusing him of criminal squandering and diversion of about N55 billion belonging to the government, in collaboration with some officials of his administration. Shema had described the indictment as a sham and fingered his successor for being on what Shema said was a witch-hunting mission.
According to Shema at the time, “any right-thinking person will know that there is predetermined agenda by Governor Masari and his commission to witch-hunt, malign, denigrate and tarnish my image. The sitting and the report constitute a charade, we reject totally the outcome and we urge all well-meaning Nigerians to disregard these antics.”
Whatever the motive might have been, with the acquittal, the matter has become history but a cross-section of politicians in the state hint at a certain colleration between the latest development and the forthcoming general elections beginning with the presidential polls on February 25, 2023.
According to a PDP chieftain, “Governor Masari couldn’t have taken the decision to forgive Shema just like that. Governors receive all manner of secret reports, so, one cannot rule out the possibility that Masari must have received a report that the general elections will certainly sweep away the APC and restore the PDP to power.”
While not ruling out propaganda in this assertion but a member of the administration at the Government House tend to tow the same line of argument, especially when compared with the circumstances under which the APC dislodged the PDP in 2015. In 2015, Masari rose to power riding on the back of President Muhammadu Buhari with his “change mantra” that equally uprooted the PDP administration not only at the federal level but also in a number of the states across the country, especially in the north. According to the source, “in 2023, Buhari may not likely be a fundamental factor in determining who becomes Governor of Katsina State and Masari has certainly lost any relevance he might have had because he is not returning to power. Governor Masari is human and there is the natural instinct at self-preservation after office and that’s why I believe he decided to take a long shot at Shema, to mend fences by exploiting a seeming crack within the PDP leadership in the state.”
Indeed, at the conclusion of the APC governorship primaries last year, the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Inuwa Muhammad Mustapha, dumped the party for the PDP after failing in his bid to secure the governorship ticket. With open hands, the PDP embraced him and named him the Director-General of its campaign organisation. The development may not have gone down well with a cross-section of the party membership even as it also reportedly unsettled the ruling APC administration. Various reports indicated that Mustapha, fondly called the Bulldozer, did the leg work for Masari and the APC across the 34 Local Government Areas during the 2015 and 2019 general elections. The fear within the APC, perhaps justifiable, is that Mustapha is likely to re-enact the feat for the PDP in 2023.
He had actually laid the foundation in April 2022 during the local council elections, ahead of Mustapha’s much-touted emergence as the APC governorship candidate. He lost the ticket to Dr. Dikko Umar Radda. “Masari failed, not Mustapha,” the source noted adding that, “we can only credit it to human error but the Governor shouldn’t have let Mustapha leave the APC in spite of the maltreatment unleashed on him during the primaries. Of course, you know what happened during the local government elections. Virtually all the elected chairmen and councillors are Mustapha’s men and you don’t need anyone to tell you where their loyalty is and will be during the general elections.”
But, is Shema capable of protecting Masari if the table turns against the APC at the conclusion of the polls? The answer is, no,” according to the same government source. There are insinuations that the so-called division within the PDP in Katsina is actually a coordinated scam, a smokescreen targeted at Masari and he apparently grabbed the bait. Apart from Shema, the immediate past Katsina State PDP Chairman, Alhaji Salisu Majigiri, along with a number of other party chieftains “shunned” Atiku Abubakar and the PDP presidential rally in Katsina, a development that the source also described as, “part of the plot to deceive the opposition into thinking that all is not well at the PDP in the state.” The source said, “unfortunately, we all fell for it and Masari fell for it but you can be sure that Mustapha is waiting to extract a pound of flesh at the right time.”
For whatever electoral value it may be worth, the Fulani community in Dutsinma, Shema’s immediate constituency may have taken its decision regarding who gets their votes at the polls. During a recent governorship campaign tour of the area, the residents told the PDP candidate, Senator Yakubu Lado, that, “Fulani pastoralists, businessmen and women have been under attack for the past seven years here. We’ll vote for the PDP, we know what they are capable of doing because they ruled us for 16 years and we were all living in peace and harmony but APC came along with insecurity and hunger. Before the APC-led government, our dear son, Ibrahim Shema provided us with social amenities within a twinkle of an eye but the APC destabilised the good structures built by PDP and our son, Shema.”