How Tinubu ‘saved’ Atiku, Ribadu in past elections — Sen Shettima

Former Governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, has explained how the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, acted as a “saviour” for former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

In an exclusive interview, Shettima said after being harassed and kicked out from their respective parties, Atiku Abubakar and Nuhu Ribadu were given a platform to re-contest for elections by Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He said, “It is pertinent to mention that when former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, was harassed, brutalised and chased out of the PDP, even some of our northern brothers were treating him as a pariah, it was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu that provided him with a sanctuary and platform to contest the 2007 presidential election.

“Again, four years later, he provided the same platform to another harassed northerner, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to contest for the presidency under the CAN,” he said.

Shettima, who was one of the three governors of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) that, together with other political parties, merged to form the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 general elections, openly declared support for the former Lagos State Governor.

“Without the block support of the South-West, it would have been difficult for President Buhari to emerge as the candidate of the APC. Tinubu worked for Buhari in 2015 and in 2019. This is why some of us find it utterly disgusting when some of the folks who vigorously worked against Buhari’s ambition in 2014 have done some political somersaults and are now members of what I called Buharist Church of Latter-Day Saints, hectoring down on us and liberally dropping the president’s name,” he said.

(Daily Trust)