‘Those calling for secession are Nigeria’s problem’ says Garba Sheu

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, says those calling for secession are Nigeria’s problem.

He said this on Tuesday in Abuja at an event organised by the All Progressives Congress, APC, Professional Forum.

You can’t intimidate Buhari, you can’t bully him, a lot of these people who are calling for secession are the problem of this country, I am happy that reasonable voices are now rising,” he said.

Mr Shehu expressed delight that Afenifere, Ohanaze Ndigbo and other socio-cultural regional groups are beginning to speak against secession.

“We have heard the governors in the South-West, they have denounced all of these things, so it’s a sham, Nigerians want to be one and united,” he said.

Speaking on the current unrest in the South-East, Mr Shehu said though criminals were fighting to gain upper hand, no criminal or terrorist was bigger than the country.

“None of them is mightier than our armed forces, this structure has been there, they were certificated and praised, they stabilised the entire West Africa region,” he said.

On the spate of kidnappings and banditry in the country, Shehu said bad eggs in communities reveal military secrets to bandits.

He told a story about how a tea seller in a particular state near the airport always revealed the movement of military personnel to bandits whenever they moved their aircraft to attack.

“The sponsors of bandits hired him, built a house for him, bought him a Golf car and gave him money to do bigger tea business.

“Each time an aircraft took off from Katsina Airport to go and operate in Zamfara, he will call them on phone and say they are coming, by the time they get there, the target have disappeared,” he said.