By Adesina Soyooye
An angry and combative Garba Shehu, has accused Dr Obodiah Mailafia of speaking irresponsibly, and should be prepared to answer questions. He angrily asked:”You want him to walk free.”
Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity was speaking on a Channels Television program, Politics Today, on Wednesday.
Asked about the invitation of Dr Mailfia by the Directorate of State Services over his wild allegations on Boko Haram, Shehu did not spare the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He asked how a big man like him could go to the market and speak to women selling “Acha”, and go to “one useless” Radio Station which aired it.
Dr Mailafia had shocked many people and caused and uproar when he, in an interview, with an FM station, Nigeria Info, made startling allegations to the effect that a serving Northern Governor is the Commander of Boko Haram.
He attributed his source to repentant high level Commanders of the sect, whom he said he had discussed with on, at least, three occasions.
He also told the radio station that the Boko Haram are planning a second phase of their insurgency which would entail the killing spree of prominent people in the city. He also said the insurgents plan a civil war by 2022.
After his interview went viral, he was invited by the DSS and was grilled for hours. Thereafter, he made an about-turn, and confessed that contrary to his claim that he got his information from Boko Haram Commanders, it was actually traders in a market who spoke to him.
Released on bail, he was invited a second time, and released again. If the way Shehu sounded is anything to go by, he may yet be invited again for another session.
Shehu said that what Mailafia said was so serious that he made every Northern Governor look like a suspect. Such things, he such should not be condoned. Free speech, he admonished, must be responsible.
