Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Assalamu alaikun yan uwa da abokan arziki gaba daya,mu yan Ahlussunnah kar muji wani abu a ran mu saboda mutum ne yake abu domin Allah,amma mutane suna ganin kamar makiyin sune sabo da su fa suna ganin kamar makiyin sune,amma daga karshe suzo suna da na sani, yan zu suna gani ai marigayi Sheik Mal.Ja'afar Mahmuod Adam ya rasu ta hanyar kisan gilla da aka yi masa a nan massallacinsa na Dorayi, suna cewa to yanzu mu ga karyar ta ku bacin ma baban malaminnaku yarasu , To yan bidia muna dada gaya muku mu munanan yan AHLUSSUNNAH kuma har yan zu muna dada adua akan wa danda suke da baki ko sa hannu ko sani ko bada iko ko bada makaman wato bundigu Allah mun kawo kukanmu da ka to na musu asiri ko suwaye acikin gaggawa.AMEEN SUMMA AMEEN

Although it is now two years, the corrupt Nigerian Police Force in connivance with the political authorities in Abuja and Kano has deliberately refused to release even the preliminary report about who actually plotted the politically motivated assassination of one of Nigerian’s foremost and respected Islamic Scholar, late Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam. The Islamic scholar was murdered while leading the Subhi prayers in his Kano residential Mosque on Friday April 13, 2007. We can authoritatively reveal that the former administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo under the then Inspector General of Police Mr. Sunday Ehindero, the Kano State Emirate Council under His Royal Highness Alhaji Ado Bayero and indeed the Kano State Government knows why Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam was assassinated in cold-blood and indeed the sponsor of this dastardly assassination.We can confirm from the overwhelming evidence gathered during the period under review that the Kano State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, who is supposedly an advocate of the Sharia implementation through an expensive programme called A Daidaita Sahu and the creation of the Hisbah group through which billions of naira in Kano State wealth was wasted and siphoned, was the one that plotted and sponsored the cold-blooded assassination of the late Islamic Cleric. It has become clear that prior to the April 2007 gubernatorial election which saw Governor Shekarau in a desperate and frantic effort to return as governor for the second time by all means, the late Sheikh Ja’afar had become one of the most visible threat capable of making it impossible for Mallam Shekaru to get re-elected. Considering the late cleric’s large followership, his authority and the influence he commands in Kano State and beyond, Shekarau realized that his disagreement with Sheikh Ja’afar may cause him his ambition to rule Kano State beyond 2007 and therefore the need to plot a permanent solution against the cleric became inevitable. That was how the plot to eliminate Sheikh Ja’afar from the face of the earth was conceived, orchestrated and executed.
The unprecedented orgy of murderous rampage at both Panshekara, the headquaters of Federal Road Safety Commission as well as in Sharada Police Station where innocent souls were mercilessly murdered few days before the brutal assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar were organised to cover the plan of his assasination and to eventually justify that his murder was not politically motivated and that it was perpetrated by rival Islamic sect. Unfortunately for the Shekarau government, there was no evidence even after the assassination to suggest or to agree with the police and the Kano State Governemnt that the attack was carried out by an unknown rival Islamic Sect. The sophistication of the assasins and the automatic AK47 they used against Sheikh Ja’afar clearly shows that they were paid to kill the Islamic Scholar. And if the attack was perpetrated by a rival Islamic sect as the authorities insinuate and fabricated, all the faithfulls in the mosque would have been killed. But their target was only Sheikh Ja’afar and as soon as they were satisfied that he did not survive the multiple gun shots, they left the scene. Misunderstanding between Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau and late Sheikh Ja’afar became sour when the late Scholar realised that Governor Shekarau was not sincere about the implementation of Shariah and that he uses the Hisba Board as a conduit pipe thereby making nonsense of the Islamic legal system. The irreconcilable disagreement forced Sheikh Ja’afar to resign his appointment as a member of the Hisbah Board and since then, he became a consistent critic of Shekarau’s unislamic conduct and mismanagement of the public resources by accusing him of using Islam to deceive and mislead the people. It has not, ofcourse, gone down well with Shekarau who began to look for several options of dealing with Sheikh Ja'afar. Attempts to make him compromise through inducement had also failed. What probably caused Jafar his life was his decision and threat at the peakk of the election season to expose the massive financial scam carried out through the Hisbah by Mallam Shekarau. The late scholar had also accused eminent clerics of benefitting so much against Islam and the masses and threatened to expose the huge scam. That was what caused him his life because Govenror Shekarau knew that the late cleric as a former privileged member of the Hisbah board was in possession of damaging dossiers and he was fully convinced that Sheikh Ja’afar had the moral credibility to convince and change the opinion of the people of Kano against him. Having tried him several times, Shekarau also knew that Sheikh Ja’afar was not the kind of cleric that can be compromised with financial inducement. That was how the decision to eliminate him was taken. Mallam Shekarau had tried unsuccessfully to induce Sheikh Ja’afar like he has done to other Islamic clerics but couldn't get him. Even the hitherto vocal chairman of the Supreme Council for Sharia Dr. Datti Ahmed was bribed and compromised by Shekarau when the former insisted on exposing the killers of the cleric. Since then, Dr. Datti remained quiet and abandoned the struggle.In fact, among all the national dailies in Nigeria particularly the northern based ones, only the Desert Herald newspaper that was bold enough to criticize the Kano State Governor and the Nigerian Police Force regarding the assasiantion of late Sheikh Ja’afar. The recent edition of Desert Herald which were cleverly indirect because of the dictatorial and murderous tendencies of the government, shows clearly the people that were responsible for the murder of Sheikh Ja’afar. Nigeria is the only country where leaders will commit all kinds of crimes openly yet the people will be afraid to say the truth because of fear or greed. As clearly demonstrated in the confessional statement below, the contract for the assassination of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam was awarded to one Alhaji Abba Gana by Governor Ibrahim Shekarau at the cost of one hundred million naira. It was Alhaji Abba Gana that contracted one Mallam Tijjani Garba who was already widely known as a hired killer by the police authorities to execute the plot at the cost of fifty million naira. The Job was successfully carried out by Tijjani Garba but the police under the then leadership of Mr. Sunday Ehindero uncovered the plot after it was executed and threatened to expose the scandal if Governor Shekarau failed to under take a bargain. It was monetary as well as a political bargain. And the former president Olusegun Obasanjo was fully involved and co-opted.When Governor Shekarau leant that Tijjani Garba have made a confessional statement in the force headquarters and incriminated him, he immediately contacted Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and began to penetrate the force Headquarters through his ADC. We reliably gathered that Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau gave another sum of one hundred million naira through his ADC to Mr. Ehindero to destroy all incriminating confession and documents that showed his involvement and to thereafter frustrate the case.
Chief Obasanjo was also approached by Shekarau to assist in killing the case. it is a well known fact in security circles that the former president who was directly or indirectly involved in the assassinations of Chief Bola Ige, Harry Marshal and Chief Chuba Okadigbo. He demanded Shekarau to ensure that Umaru Musa Yar’Adua won the 2007 presidential election in Kano by all means as a condition of his intervention. Chief Obasanjo out rightly told Shekarau that he must ensure that General Muhammadu Buhari is defeated in Kano and asked the governor to decamp to the PDP. While the governor pleaded no to do the latter, he accepted and work vigorously against General Buhari at the presidential polls. We can also authoritatively report that Governor Shekarau because of similar reason also accepted to fund the Yar’Adua Campaign including printing and placement of bill boards. That was the reason he went against General Buhari and not because of his disagreement with the former General as he claimed in interviews. Alhaji Abba Gana who was directly contracted by Governor Shekarau to kill Sheikh Ja’afar and who subsequently contracted the job to an expert, Tijjani Garba, also handles Shekarau’s illegal businesses. Abba Gana was once arrested in London with the sum of ten million pounds belonging to Governor Shekarau on his way to deposit the money at HSBC Bank London and Royal Bank of Scotland. The money laundering scandal was later referred to Nigeria but the police took advantage of the situation, benefited immensely and frustrated the case. It was among the reasons the then Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu indicted and disqualified Shekarau but he was eventually rescued by Chief Obasanjo because of the sealed deal of ensuring Yar'Adua's victory in Kano by all means.Governor Ibrahim Shekarau is believed to have diverted over thirty billon naira belonging to the Kano State Government and through the local Government Joint Account in Six years through fraudulent programmes like the Hisbah and A Daidaita Sahu. While he has also generated billions of naira internally, what he had done so far is not commensurate with the billions of naira he has collected. He had become so dictatorial, autocratic and deceptive over the years.What remains to be seen is serious efforts by the Nigerian authorities to investigate the Volume of allegations and confessional statements which openly confesses the involvement of Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau in brutal murder of Sheikh Ja’afar . May be not in the present dispensation because President Yar’Aua has not yet commenced even the process of doing justice to the innocent souls of imminent Nigerians like Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Harry Marshal, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam and Chief Bola Ige that were snuffed out by his predecessor. Being a beneficiary of Shekarau's largesse coupled with the electoral fraud in his favour in Kano, Yar'Adua is also not likely to investigate Shekarau's glaring involment in the murder of Sheikh Ja'afar.But from the evidence so far before the Nigerian Police and which were distorted, the present Kano State Governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau is the masterminder of Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmud Adam’s assassination and it was purely for political reasons. But for how long will he remain as the governor of Kano State? Watch out for more details.
SHEIK JAAFAR MAHMUD ADAM ON DAILY TRIUMPH
On Thursday, July 2nd instant, a close friend of mine called my attention to a report in Sahara Reporters, in which my name was mischievously mentioned as the person who stole the Bank PHB cheque and concocted evidence that led to the arrest of Alhaji Ado Mohammed, Vice Chairman of Freedom Radio. Two days earlier, Desert Herald newspaper also published a cover story, in which top functionaries of the Government of Kano State, as well as myself, were accused by Tukur Mamu, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, of connivance to visit harm on him and his company for what he called the Government’s discomfort with his “investigative reporting” of the assassination of the foremost Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmoud Adam. In a most wicked and reckless manner, Tukur Mamu mentioned me as the person being used to perfect a search of his office and residence and plant evidence, including weapons, with a view to framing and arresting him. A day before the Desert Herald publication, I got a copy of a petition sent by Tukur Mamu to the Inspector General of Police, in which he made very wild allegations against me and the same top functionaries of Government that he mentioned in his newspaper. As if that was not enough, Tukur Mamu carried his grand mischief to the next two editions of his Desert Herald (Nos 29 and 31, Vol. 1 of July 7 – July 14 and July 14 – July 21, 2009, refer). These ones are even bolder, as he frontally accused His Excellency, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the Executive Governor of Kano State of having “conspired the arrest of Tukur Mamu,” whatever that means. Using one Maryam Musa, he also dwelt extensively in faulting the Nigeria Police findings on the matter of the killing, and descended heavily on the Government of Kano State, accusing me of being used to implicate him, “using every means possible,” including plotting the raid and influencing his arrest. Since these wicked and irresponsible publications, I have received several phone calls and personal visits from friends and well wishers, seeking to hear my own side of the story. My family has also been distressed, fearing that all this orchestrated and calculated mischief and propaganda could endanger my life. I leave everything to God, fervently praying to Him to quickly expose the actual killers of Sheikh Ja’afar as well as all those using it to destroy innocent people to advance selfish, narrow political ends.To start with, I want to state very categorically that Tukur Mamu is lying against me and all the officials of Kano State Government that he accused of having a hand in perceived efforts to exact a pound of flesh on him. Let me also say that Tukur Mamu personally gave me a photocopy of that Bank PHB cheque as well as some purported documents to do with the killing of Sheikh Ja’afar in the evening hours of Wednesday, May 6, 2009, in his office at No. 2A, Marnona Road, Unguwan Sarki, Kaduna. It was from Tukur Mamu that I saw the cheque for the first time. IF I AM LYING AGAINST TUKUR MAMU, MAY ALLAH DESTROY MY LIFE AND REFUSE ME ALL I WANT IN THIS WORLD AND THE HEREAFTER. For emphasis, let me repeat that Tukur Mamu personally gave me a copy of that Bank PHB cheque that led to the arrest of Alhaji Ado Mohammed of Freedom Radio. Personally, I have nothing against Alhaji Ado Mohammed. I cannot remember ever meeting him in my life. Of course I had a misunderstanding with Freedom Radio in June 2005, as a result of their inability to air a political jingle in the prime time I and my friends paid for, as well as their misperception that I wrote an article against them. But all this was later amicably resolved. And in October 2008, I testified against the radio station in a case of libel at Kano High Court. But all these were mere happenstances. God knows that when Tukur Mamu gave me a copy of that cheque, I did not have the slightest inkling that it belongs to Filaps/Freedom Radio and/or Alhaji Ado Mohammed, as none of these names was on the cheque. If Mamu had given me only the cheque, I will never have reckoned with it. But he gave me other papers supporting the cheque. Allah bears me witness. Let me also swear that if I or any other official of Kano State Government were the one(s) who concocted that cheque to implicate Freedom Radio and/or Alhaji Ado Mohammed, may Allah destroy my life and refuse me all I want in this world and the Hereafter. I challenge Tukur Mamu to come out and swear to Allah in the same manner that I just did. Let him swear in like manner and own up or support/confirm all the trash that he has written or caused to be written against me and the Government of Kano State as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Tukur Mamu was also lying when he said a copy of the cheque and one other document found in his house during police search amounted to nothing, that he got them because they have already become public documents by the publication of same in Sahara Reporters. He is lying because he personally gave me a copy of that cheque early May this year, while Sahara Reporters only published it almost two months later. Questions need to be asked as to who gave Sahara Reporters a copy of that cheque: Was it Tukur Mamu himself or any of his collaborators? If the cheque was indeed stolen, and anyone is interested in who stole it, Mamu is very much there to provide the answer. It is either he stole it from Alhaji Ado Mohammed/Flaps or he knows who did so. My relationship with Tukur Mamu dates back to May 5, 2007. That day, I went to the Desert Herald office in Kaduna to see a former subordinate of mine who was his staff. The office was then located at Abakpa NEPA (within the premises of the regional office of the Nigeria Red Cross). It was this former subordinate that introduced me to Tukur Mamu as his boss/Editor-in-Chief. He gave me a warm reception and we got talking. I was not in the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau at the time (though I was its Media Consultant), but virtually all we discussed was Nigerian politics. As our discussion veered towards Kano politics, I sensed that Mamu harbours a pathological hatred for Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, the Executive Governor of Kano State. And I asked him why. Tukur Mamu told me he does not get along with the Governor because he has failed to redeem a pledge to give the Desert Herald, his own newspaper, the sum of two million naira. He told me he was going to deal with the Governor for allegedly deceiving him. Tukur Mamu then showed me some documents, purportedly copied from the files of the Cabinet Office, Kano, as well as an agreement, in which the Government of Kano State allegedly assigned the task of killing Sheikh Ja’afar to someone whose name was unclear, obviously owing to low quality photocopy. I was shocked. I told Mamu he was treading a very dangerous path, wondering how he came about the so-called documents. But he told me he was very sure of his facts; that he got the documents from some members of The Buhari Organisation (TBO) and staff of the Cabinet Office in Kano. I asked if they were genuine, to which he answered in the affirmative. I then asked him to give me copies of the documents, but he refused. I did all I could to convince Mamu to part with those documents, but he was adamant, until I made to him a firm promise to get the Governor to redeem the two million naira pledge he claimed the Governor made. It was only then that he accepted to give me copies. He then called one of his staff, by name Ibrahim Mada, who he told me he trusted, and asked him to go and make photocopies. In the Desert Herald office at that time, there were no photocopying facilities, and it was past 8pm. The photocopy could only be made in a business centre located far away from the newspaper’s offices. There was no vehicle to convey the emissary. So I called my Personal Assistant who accompanied me to Desert Herald, but who was waiting in the newsroom. I gave him the key to my car and asked him to drive Mamu’s staff to the business centre. But because of his limited knowledge of Kaduna, it was Ibrahim Mada that drove my car to the photocopy centre. He went with my Personal Assistant.Minutes later, they returned. Mamu gave me one set of the documents, on the condition that I get him the money from the Governor, as I promised. I assured him I was going to do that. He saw me off to my car. Though it was late and the road was bad, I decided to take off for Kano so that I could start the process of getting the money for Mamu as early as that night. On arrival in Kano, I went straight to the residence of a top official of the State Government. I told him about my meeting with Mamu, and the need for the pledge said to have been made by the Governor to be redeemed without any further delay. The matter I brought was a very serious one, so the official did not waste time. Though it was already late, he called some civil servants on his cell-phone and read out the reference numbers on the purported documents, asking them to verify their existence. After some minutes, the officials confirmed that they did not have any such reference numbers in their record, meaning that the letters were forged. I understand that the process was repeated the following day, but it became clearer that the documents given to me by Tukur Mamu were made up. Even though I was disappointed in Mamu for harkening to such a cheap blackmail, I still asked the official to see the Governor and establish whether he has made any promise to help Desert Herald with two million naira, but the official reasoned that there was no need; that even if the Governor had actually made the pledge, redeeming it at that time may amount to bowing to blackmail, which no responsible government would do. At the end, no money was given. I sent a lengthy text message to Mamu, in which I expressed my position. The message was sent at 7:14am on May 6, 2007. It reads verbatim: “All my efforts to reach u hv proved abortive, obviously owing to bad network. I hv dispassionately investigated the matter and hereby confirm to you that Wallahi there’s no iota of truth in the allegations (about the killing). I am sure u’ve never heard of anywhere – incl thriller films and novels, where agreement is written bw an assassin and his client. Enemies of Gov Shekarau will only intensify their vain efforts to destroy him, but the people of Kano aren’t stupid as to swallow hook, line and sinker, all the falsehood being dished out to them. All the reference numbers, as I told u, don’t even exist. They thought u’ll just go ahead and publish their trash without crosschecking the facts. The allegation of murder, as u’ll agree wt me, is a grievous one. We deeply appreciate the fact that u’ve given us an ample opportunity to debunk the spurious allegations. It’s as preposterous as it’s pedestrian. We trust u’ll not allow ur newspaper to be used so cheaply. Mahdi and I will call u later today to once again thank u for ur noble efforts. Thanks. So long.” Tukur Mamu disagreed with me. He thought I deceived him to get the documents, and I succeeded through phone calls and text messages to convince him that I never set out to deceive him. He was piqued. He later absolved me of any blame but vowed to deal with Governor Malam Ibrahim Shekarau. The security services and anyone in doubt could easily confirm this information (especially the text messages) with MTN (the network I used) and Econet, now Zain (the network used by Tukur Mamu, though he seems to have abandoned the line). But I still have this and more text messages exchanged between Mamu and I, in my cellphone. I was therefore not surprised when a few days or weeks later (I cannot exactly remember the date), Desert Herald came out with a loose insertion, in which the reading public were assured they would soon be treated with a grand expose about the person that sponsored the killing of Sheikh Ja’afar. The fact that they did so two years after the killing easily gives me the feeling that Tukur Mamu is simply doing the bidding of desperate political opponents who will do everything to destroy Governor Shekarau politically.On the 2nd Anniversary of the killing of Sheikh Jafar, Desert Herald, Tukur Mamu’s newspaper, resurrected the matter in one of its publications by blaming the Governor of Kano State of doing virtually nothing to coerce the police to apprehend the killers of the late cleric. Contrary to Mamu’s assertions that his paper did not directly accuse the Governor, it did so by supporting the story with a cartoon through which even a child will know that they were clearly hanging the murder on the Governor’s neck. Another cartoon callously depicting the Governor as the perpetrator of the killing was published in the edition of Desert Herald of July 14 – July 21, 2009. A few days later, an American online news agency, Sahara Reporters, published on their website, a very slanderous claim that it was the Kano Governor that actually sponsored the killing of Sheikh Jafar. The story was full of inconsistencies and fallacies, as dispassionate readers could easily discern. It has no name of an author or writer. It was said to have originated from Citizen Reports, a website whose owners are so dissatisfied that for weeks, they have offered it for sale. It is so discreditable that no one has found it worthy to snap it up yet. I was greatly disturbed. For one, the allegation, very weighty and dangerous, is against my boss and mentor, the Governor. Secondly, Mamu was a colleague, if not a friend. Thirdly, I was somehow involved by providence right from the beginning, when I met Mamu on that fateful day in May 2007. I therefore decided to find out what was happening. Thus, on the 2nd anniversary of my first visit to Mamu (specifically on May 6, 2009), I called Ibrahim Mada on my cellphone. It was the same Ibrahim who followed my staff to photocopy the documents given to me by Tukur on May 5, 2007, as I mentioned earlier. I later found out he works as production manager of Desert Herald newspaper. I asked him why they seemed so hell-bent in destroying the Governor, but Ibrahim lamented that his personal efforts to bring about reconciliation between Tukur and the Government of Kano State, an attempt he made through me in 2008 when he visited me in the Government House, Kano, had not yielded any fruits. At the end of our phone conversation, I told Ibrahim I was coming to Kaduna to meet with him one-on-one on the issue. In Kaduna, Ibrahim met me in a house I was renting at Ishaku Street, Unguwar Dosa, near the legislators quarters, in the afternoon hours of May 6, 2009. To reassure Ibrahim that I was not going to record the conversation I was billed to have with him, I asked him to follow me to my car, which was parked outside the house. We discussed at length about the allegations, drawing Ibrahim’s attention to the dangers his boss was exposing them to, and their responsibility to treat the reading public to decent journalism. But he told me that what they have published is just a tip of the iceberg; that they have heaps of documents, very incriminating and damaging to the reputation of the Governor of Kano State, which Tukur Mamu is set to publish the moment the Governor or the Government makes any attempt to bring him to justice. I asked Ibrahim to get me those documents, but he asked me to see his boss and get the papers directly from him. I expressed the fear that Tukur would not co-operate, as I have failed to get him the money two years earlier. Ibrahim promised to prepare the grounds for me, so that Tukur would not be difficult when I meet him. And in the evening hours of that day, I met Tukur Mamu in his office at No 2A, Marnona Street, Kaduna (the Desert Herald has relocated to this office well after my 2007 meeting with him). To my surprise, Mamu gave me a very warm reception. Obviously, Ibrahim had fulfilled his promise to prepare the grounds. I used the occasion to apologise for my inability to get him the money I promised. I then brought up the topic of the killing of Sheikh Ja’afar. As Tukur started dwelling on blaming the Governor, I pointed out very categorically that Malam Ibrahim Shekarau could not have been the one to sponsor the killing of the respected Islamic cleric. And as Mamu continued arguing, I sensed that he could easily lose his temper and walk me out of his office. I then remember that one of the most effective ways to easily infiltrate criminals, e.g. drug hawkers or consumers is to infiltrate them and pretend you are also a user or buyer. With this in mind, I decided to toe his line by painting some elements in the Government negatively, without mentioning the governor or any name. At the end of my conversation with Mamu, my strategy paid off. He handed over to me some important documents, including a copy of a cheque, on which the 100 million naira alleged by Sahara Reporters as what was paid to the killer of Sheikh Ja’afar, was written. There was also a covering letter dated April 2, 2008, purportedly from the Research, Evaluation and Political Affairs Directorate (REPA) of the Cabinet Office, in which the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Bello Shehu Usman, was allegedly asking the Honourable Commissioner of Finance, Kano State, to release the sum of 100 million naira. The cheque was dated April 3, 2008. It was issued by Bank PHB branch No. 17/18, Bello Road, Kano. The Account Number as it appeared on the cheque was 008102000016. The cheque was also numbered as 10196590. I was accompanied on this visit to Mamu by a childhood friend of mine. We entered Tukur Mamu’s office together, though he later withdrew to wait for us at the reception. So this friend of mine could verify this fact. He could also verify my receipt of the documents from Mamu. Another person who could verify this is Ibrahim Mada, who even at this occasion, was given the documents by Mamu with a directive to get me two sets of photocopy. On arrival in Kano, I decided to see the Governor and hand over the papers to him. I could not reach him on phone, so at 9:21am on May 9, 2009, I sent the following text message to the Governor: “Salam. Sir, at last, I have been able to retrieve certain documents, seemingly very sensitive, from the people smearing and blackmailing u wildly and falsely putting the blame of Sheikh Jafar’s murder on ur doorsteps, in KD. I have uncovered their game-plan, the so-called fresh evidence they want to use to open a fresh chapter in the irresponsible allegations, and how we can hv the last laugh by preempting them thru a networked intelligence and prove to the world that what they are bandying are irresponsible tissues of lies.” The Governor replied hours later to inform me that he had traveled out of the country in respect of the Pfizer issue, promising to grant me an audience on his return two weeks later. Unfortunately, on the day he granted the appointment, exigencies of work cropped up, and the appointment had to be postponed twice. On realizing that time was going, and that one of the papers was bearing the purported signature of my colleague in Government, Alhaji Bello Shehu Usman, the Permanent Secretary of Research, Evaluation and Political Affairs (REPA) Directorate of the Cabinet Office, I went to his office on the 11th of June, 2009 to see him and give him a copy of the documents. I did not meet him, but I dropped a copy on his table. I tried to call and inform him, but he has this habit of switching off his phone whenever he is too busy. A day later, I traveled outside the state. So all my efforts to contact him proved abortive. But on Friday, June 26th instant, Alhaji Bello and I met in the Government House, Kano, and I asked him whether he has seen the documents I dropped on his table. He expressed surprise that I was the one who dropped them. But I told him about the several efforts I made to reach him, all to no avail. He took very strong exception to the documents I dropped, emphatically telling me that the whole purported documents, i.e. the letter on his office letter head was forged, and that he had already reported the matter to the police. He also told me he knew nothing about the cheque. Before then, I had undertaken a third visit to Tukur Mamu (I cannot exactly recollect the date). I met him in his residence at Unguwar Dosa, Kaduna, together with my wife and another friend (who is also a friend of Tukur). Mamu called his senior wife, Hauwa and introduced my wife to her. They entered her suite in the house, and at the end, exchanged cellphone numbers and became friends. By the time I paid him this visit, I had started getting convinced that deep in his heart, Tukur Mamu was interested in unraveling the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar. He drew my attention to a report published by Weekly Trust newspaper, in which the writer suggested that Governor Shekarau could not have had a hand in the murder, but that one of his supporters could overzealously have been a part of it. I thus asked Mamu to give me more documents so that he and I shall pursue that line of thinking. My intention was to show to the Governor, whatever Tukur gave me and mention to him the allegation or thinking that a sympathizer of his could have been a suspect in the murder. Mamu agreed with me, and he asked me to see him in his office and collect the documents. At the end however, he did not give me anything when I met him in the office that particular day. Ibrahim Mada called early the following day to say the documents were being kept in a house in Zaria, and that the occupant had traveled and his phone switched off. Later he told me the truth, that Tukur Mamu was advised by some of them, the staff, against giving me more documents. I reminded them - swearing to God - that I needed the documents to possibly help unravel the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar and get Mamu the two million naira from the Government, but they did not budge. It was during this visit that Tukur sensationally told me he was aware of a plan hatched sometimes ago by the Government of Kano State to get him killed, but that his informants in Government have informed him it was the Governor who called off the plan. During that meeting in his house also, I accepted and entered a pact with Mamu to be loyal to and defend each other. By then, as I said, I had started seeing him as a genuine, innocent and honest person I could work with to unravel the truth. I later understand that Tukur was ill-advised by a staff of his, said to be his alter-ego, who is basically too unlettered to comprehend the strategic importance of my partnership with his boss. I became worried and more desperate to see the Governor and discuss with him the two-year old claim by Mamu that the Governor owed him two million naira, on the basis of which he became so hell-bent in destroying the Governor’s political future. Unfortunately I could not get through to His Excellency until Monday, June 29th instant, owing to constant travels on my part. The Governor explained that there was absolutely no such thing as obligation between him and Desert Herald or Tukur Mamu; that someone had indeed introduced the need for the newspaper to be assisted, but that he later heard the newspaper specializes in blackmailing people; for which reason he decided not to grant the request. My last meeting with Tukur Mamu was on Monday, June 22nd instant. I called to inform him I was coming to see him for an important discussion. I requested that the meeting be held outside his office, as it was located close to Kano Liaison Office, and the Liason Officer knows the very car I was coming with. I would not want the officer to start suspecting why he sees me at Desert Herald, a newspaper that has established itself as an arch-enemy of several state governments and even the police. So on arrival in Kaduna in the evening hours of June 22nd, I parked my car at Sultan Bello Mosque and walked to Desert Herald. I was met by Ibrahim Mada who led me to Mamu’s office. I met him and one elderly person eating their dinner together. After the man left, Mamu and I started discussing. He started by expressing his doubts about my sincerity and intention. I was rattled. And in the ensuing confusion, I had to think of anything that will disabuse his thinking, though I did not tell him anything serious. But he boasted that he was going to deploy the “sensitive documents” at his disposal to humiliate the Governor of Kano State. It was at that stage that I appealed to him not to try any such thing as humiliating or bringing down the Governor. I told him I was going to make more efforts to get Government to pay him the money. The next day however, Tukur Mamu sent me a text message, in which he informed me that he has recorded all our conversation the previous day. I called him but he refused to pick. I then sent him a text message, expressing my anger at what he did. His reply was emphatic. In it, he admitted giving me the documents, insisting that my intention all along was to betray him and get to know about his secrets and transmit same to Government. He sent me this particular text message in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 23rd instant. Now, this text message and the record of my conversation with him are the two things that shall be used to get a proof of the fact that I got the documents from him. No Government official has ever sent me to Tukur Mamu to get anything from him. It was just my own initiative. I believe I have what lawyers call the locus standi to try to pursue the truth in the interest of peace and justice. More so, I needed to as much as possible protect the incumbent Government of Kano State when it is treated unfairly, because I am an integral part of it, and I played key roles in bringing it about. But even more importantly, my participation shall be seen as a contribution to national security. At least, it has given the security services a lead they can work on. I may have acted amateurishly in some respects, but I did everything with honesty and justice as my guiding principles. God knows that if through my efforts I had uncovered the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar - even if they were in Government, I will have rushed to expose them. Even now, I am confident that Allah will expose the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar. That was precisely the very reason I entered into that kind of partnership with Tukur Mamu. But he was misadvised, and he easily developed cold feet. Even then, the end is justifying the means. I have more witnesses to buttress the fact that Tukur Mamu is the very person who personally gave me many documents/letters purportedly from one branch of the Cabinet Office or the other, as well as the cheque I have earlier herein referred to. I have also secured the record of all my phone discussions with him and his staff, Ibrahim Mada. In virtually all my meetings with him, Tukur Mamu was always expressing the hope that the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar would be arrested. With a mind full of venom, he was always blaming the Government of Kano State of having a hand in the murder, but I always countered by telling him the Governor could not have been part of any plan to kill any human being, not to talk of Sheikh Ja’afar who had been his colleague in Islamic evangelism for ages. We have on several occasions, in person or on phone, even discussed the issue of motive. No crime is carried out without a motive. In the case of late Sheikh Ja’afar, the faceless people who sent the mischievous story to Sahara Reporters have claimed Governor Shekarau ordered the killing because he was afraid the late Sheikh was going to stop his re-election by ordering his followers not to vote for the Governor. I have always replied that the late Sheikh Ja’afar could not even have harboured the thought of stopping the Governor’s re-election, because he, more than Tukur Mamu and I, knew that power belongs to Allah and He alone. He gives it to whoever He wants and withdraws it from who He wants. Besides, very popular and powerful politicians and opinion moulders have made very clear, open and desperate efforts to stop Governor Shekarau’s re-election. They failed woefully. No one could have succeeded in stopping the re-election of Malam Shekarau because the support for the Governor was too powerful and Allah Has decreed it. Virtually everyone who was living in Kano at that time had sensed that Shekarau was going to break the so-called jinx to be re-elected. It is noteworthy that even some respected newspapers had predicted in an opinion poll that he was going to win. So Governor Shekarau does not have any reason whatsoever to order for the murder of Sheikh Ja’afar a day to an election he was billed to win. What the Governor needed was peace, not anything that could get the election postponed. Be that as it may, I believe there is one serious angle that has not been explored, and which shall really be explored if indeed the murder has political undertones as believed by many commentators, is the possibility of it being carried out or sponsored by the opposition, in a desperate move to get the election, which they sensed they were going to lose, postponed in Kano. Going by this possibility, the real sponsors of the murder could have calculated that killing a cleric as popular as Sheikh Ja’afar at that late hour – a day to the election - would result in an orgy of violence that would force the federal authorities to postpone the gubernatorial election in Kano, so that by the time it holds later, they (the sponsors) will have succeeded in hanging the murder on the neck of Governor Shekarau and/or his Government and by so doing seriously injure or quash his support base, to enable them win the election comfortably on a platter of gold. They could use propaganda, just as is happening now, to blame Governor Shekarau and his Government, just because the late Sheikh had resigned from membership of the Sharia Commission, a post given to him by the State Government. I am strongly convinced that either Tukur Mamu knows the killers of Sheikh Ja’afar and is in league with them; informing why he is strongly protecting their identity, or is one of the leaders of a ring that is all-out to destroy Governor Shekarau, concocting documents to hang a murder on him. If the so-called documents, including a purported confessional statement and the cheque in question, all sourced from Mamu, do not lead us to the actual killers, it should lead us to who concocted them and the reason for so doing. Either way, it is a criminal offence. More so, Tukur Mamu needs to be asked: Why does it take him two years to start this propaganda, when he has promised to deploy his newspaper to do so as far back as 2007? Why is he denying almost everything that could help the authorities unravel the killers? Tukur once told me that he has a hand in the planting of the story published by Sahara Reporters, in which the federal government, the Governor of Kano State and the top echelon of the Nigerian Police were accused of connivance in respect of the murder of the late cleric, and that he could get it withdrawn from circulation if the Government would pay him. All he talks about, in private, is money, money, money, all the time, while in public, he preaches morality. A denial of this by him will only convince me further that the man has no conscience, and that he is a coward of the front-row. In any case, his denial would amount to nothing, as I have a record of this too, and can give it to the authorities if needed. I did not even suspect that Tukur Mamu was lying about his wish for Sheikh Ja’afar’s killers to be fished out until he was arrested and he denied ever giving me the documents. I thought he was truly courageous, as he wants the world to believe, and could not imagine that the man could so easily turn jelly and unconscionable. What followed was Tukur taking full advantage of his own newspaper to resort to sabre-rattling and all sorts of cheap propaganda and shameless falsehood and blackmail, wildly blaming innocent people. He now regards himself as a hero, claiming that his arrest and detention have made him more popular. He told me as much when I sent him a text message on Tuesday, July 14th, instant, asking why he is so wicked and unconscionable as to continue fabricating lies in his newspaper and interviews. He bragged and bragged, but I told him his so-called victory cannot stand, as it was built on a weak foundation of falsehood. The man was so wicked that he has employed division as a tool. His strategy now is to cause division within the ranks of those officials of Kano State Government he accuses of having a hand in the murder. He said I tried to use him to destroy the Governor. Yet, he was so inconsistent that he continues to insist I was sent by the Governor and the SSG to harm him. How then could I have asked him to harm the Governor, if I were his agent? He also said in a text message he sent to me on July 14 that I was too small for the assignment; that I was unintelligent. I replied to tell him these are the very proofs that no one has sent me; that Government does not need to send me, a “small” and “unintelligent” person, to gather any intelligence on him; that it should have sent professionals to do the job thoroughly and without any trace, if indeed it cares a hoot about him. In any case, Tukur is ascribing self-importance to himself to think that the Government of Kano State would even go to the extent he claims. No one in the Government has ever reckoned with him. This explains why no one found it fit to reply him when he started this mischief last April. As for me, I am writing this response only because credible writers, such as my elder brother, Malam Garba Deen Mohammed, have somewhat joined the fray by writing on the subject. It is clear they have only limited knowledge of the reality on ground, as all they hear is the falsehood from Mamu. I believe I owe them, my family and the society an explanation so that they will get to know the truth. The Government of Kano State did not report Tukur Mamu to the police as he has mischievously been bandying about. He reported himself by sending a frivolous petition to the Inspector General of Police, the same person that he has been accusing of connivance in the murder. He was just afraid of his own shadow. The police only invited him to shed further light on the petition he sent. But he was so ungodly as to claim his arrest was orchestrated by the Governor of Kano State, just to attract undue sympathy. I understand that Tukur Mamu has been claiming persecution so as to convince the American Government to grant him an asylum. He is so much of a coward and core-opportunist. If Tukur were serious about getting the killers of the cleric, he will have summoned the courage to own up to these documents and name his source(s). The police could have, through Tukur, traced the producers of the so-called confessional statement allegedly made by an imaginary killer called Tijjani Garba, who we now know exists only in Tukur Mamu’s wild imagination. More importantly, Mamu will have explained how he came about the Bank PHB cheque that led to the arrest and detention of Alhaji Ado Mohammed. But by falsely and wickedly ascribing it to me, and by planting false stories in Sahara Reporters without putting his name, Tukur Mamu has proven that all he is after is grand mischief and breach of the peace; and that he does not have the courage of his conviction. If he doubts the police investigation which cleared Governor Shekarau, Kano Emirate Council and Freedom Radio of any hand in the killing, let Tukur Mamu produce the evidence that he claims he has or publish it in his own newspaper. He shall stop chasing shadows and fighting a lost battle on behalf of political enemies of the Kano State Government. The two million naira that he desperately wants the Government of Kano State to give him is too small an amount to warrant his attempts at instigating a breach of the peace in Kano and by extension, Nigeria. Tukur Mamu should stop misleading gullible minds to wage a personal battle for pecuniary interests. What he wants is for the Government of Kano State to be patronizing him, giving him regular monetary inducements and gifts, as a Governor in the north-west is doing. Who else gave Tukur Mamu the money, tens of millions of naira, with which he built the very house he now lives in Kaduna? Who gave the same Tukur Mamu the gift of an expensive Mercedes ML jeep, which he drives? Who else has been visiting Tukur, especially at night, giving him millions of naira, all in a bid to destroy his former boss and avoid Mamu’s blackmail? The incumbent Government of Kano State does not need to do that. It does not and will never patronize blackmailers. I can swear by the Glorious Qur’an that if Governor Shekarau has given Mamu that two million naira and probably one or two gifts, he will have abandoned the Sheikh Ja’afar crusade and even paint the Governor in the colours of sainthood. For you to live in peace with Tukur Mamu, you must patronize him. You must give him money all the time. He is at war with many governors because they have refused to kowtow to his selfish demands. In his native Yobe, he was fighting the past two governors, including the incumbent, for basically the same reason. He has been a failed politician in his state, blaming the powers that be for his travails. And he has been waging a war of ethnic hatred against the Ngizims, blaming them for his electoral misfortunes.So Tukur needs to fear Allah. He shall also remember that at the end of it all, he is going to render an account of all his misdeeds before the Almighty. Right now, he has this feeling that he is untouchable and above the law. He has alluded to this when he said his release from detention was as a result of strong pressures from international bodies and some influential Nigerians, who he even thanked for doing so. Now, who are these international bodies? Who are the influential Nigerians? Why were they so desperate to get Tukur Mamu released? Were they afraid that he would spill the beans and expose them for probably having a hand in the killing or in some other heinous crimes? Nigerians need to know who these people or bodies are. If they are so powerful that the Inspector General of Police has no choice than to obey their orders, then President Yar’adua should personally intervene to see whether their actions were informed by the need to cover their dirty tracks. It is most unfortunate that in Nigeria today, all you need to do to run down your political opponent is to rush to Desert Herald or Sahara Reporters with the wildest, most irresponsible allegations and pronto, the trash will be published without any authentication. Desert Herald even publishes advertorials free of charge, provided the content is about tarnishing those who refuse to patronise them. I have some good examples of such. While Mamu is recklessly being driven by the love for money - saying nothing bad about the misdeeds of those who patronize him, Sowore, the respectable publisher of Sahara Reporters seems to have this unfortunate misperception that anyone in government is an oppressor or a cheat. This is far from the truth, as Nigerian public service has churned out some of the most honest people that any society could be proud of. It defies reasoning and logic for Sahara Reporters to carry this particular dangerous story linking a state governor to the killing of a popular cleric in its well-known website without any verification. It is baffling that at the tail-end of this concocted falsehood in its website, Sahara Reporters disowned it by stating that “Citizen Reports are not directly investigated, verified or vetted by saharareporters.” The writer, whoever he was or they were, clearly did not have the courage of his or their conviction. Yet, Sahara went ahead to publish it without giving a thought about the implication. How terrible! To further prove that all the stories are no more than products of the wild imagination of Tukur Mamu, he mentioned Major Garko as one of the top functionaries of Kano State Government that held meetings in which plans were allegedly hatched to harm him. The truth is that Major Garko has left the Shekarau Administration at the end of the Governor’s first term in May 2007. He was not reappointed to office in the new government. But Tukur Mamu’s “investigative reporting” has been describing him as still holding the office of an adviser to the Governor on security matters. Tukur Mamu said I am not intelligent. But Desert Herald, his newspaper that describes itself as Nigeria’s most insightful newspaper, is so discredited that it could not engage the services of credible editors with good command of English language, as all their publications contain serious grammatical blunders, contradictions and inconsistencies virtually throughout. Yet, he calls himself the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. And they want people to take them seriously. A measure of the fact that what they are reporting about the murder of Sheikh Ja’afar is trash could be seen in the fact that no newspaper, apart from them, has carried it in the irresponsible manner they are doing. They claimed that all other Nigerian newspapers were bribed by Kano State Government to look the other way. So blind are they in casting aspersions on people and institutions that they lost sight of the fact that the Nigerian press compose of some of the most decent journalists that any society can be proud of. Members of the Nigerian press are on record to have risked their lives to lead the struggle for the enthronement of democracy on our shores. Not even the federal government can bribe many of them, not to talk of Kano State. So if any story is worth reporting, they will certainly report it without fear. But because they are not junk, they cannot compromise their integrity to rush in reporting unsubstantiated materials, as Desert Herald is busy doing. The security services, the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, the Guild of Editors, the Nigerian Press Council and the Nigerian Union of Journalists all have a serious responsibility to check this dangerous trend where a so-called publisher will recklessly use the platform of his newspaper and incessantly seek to run down people just because they have refused to give him patronage, while presenting a folk-hero image and holier-than-thou attitude to the public, not even mindful of the security implications of his crass irresponsibility and sheer opportunism. In conclusion, let me say that a million Tukur Mamus cannot really succeed in their desperate efforts to bring down Governor Ibrahim Shekarau politically. More potent enemies have tried and fail, so God willing, he and his cohorts will also continue to fail. When the evil plotter beats his drum for the downfall of an innocent, God will never let the drum sound. This is why Kano has not erupted in violence, in spite of all the instigation and provocation by the Mamus of this world. He who must destroy others in order to succeed, shall await destruction at the post of his success. May Allah quickly expose all those truly behind the brutal murder of Sheikh Ja’afar and rest his soul in perfect peace, ameen.

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