Shettima, NEDC boss petition IGP over alleged defamation by whistleblowers
By Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi
The Vice President, Kashim Shettima, and the Managing Director of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Goni Alkali, have petitioned the Inspector General of Police to invite and possibly prosecute the leaders of a group who linked them to alleged mismanagement of N13 billion.
One Pastor Sani Abdullahi and Reverend Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa, leaders of a group, Coalition of Civil Society Organisation against Corruption in Northerner Nigeria (COCSOCINN), had held a press conference in Abuja and claimed that they petitioned President Bola Tinubu over N13 billion corruption allegation against Shettima and Alkali.
Meanwhile, Barrister Peter A. Aki in a copy of petition to IGP on behalf of the Vice President and the Managing Director of NEDC said that the “malicious libel and criminal defamation” against his clients was to ignite political instability.
The petitioners claimed that the publications on some national dailies were false and were done with a view to disparage Shettima and Alkali in the eyes of right thinking persons, contrary to Nigerian Criminal and Penal code Laws and a gross violation of their right to dignity of human person as guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As amended).
They said, “The publication is not only false, malicious, and destructive, it is a deliberate attempt to malign the person of the number two man in the country, expose him and his family to ridicule, and needlessly incite public hatred against his person and his family. This false information is criminal defamation that is capable of provoking the numerous supporters of Kashim Shettima in not only Borno, North Eastern States, in particular, and Nigeria as a whole.
“Even common sense will tell anybody that cares to know that the Bureau for Public Procurement Act has regulated the award of contracts and further that only the Federal Executive Council has the power to sanction any payment for contracts that are above the limit approved for the Management of the North East Development Commission as stipulated under the relevant statutes.
“It is therefore not practically possible under whatever guise, for the MD of the NEDC to unilaterally remove the Commission’s funds, the sum of N13 billion for the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for personal gain as alleged.”
