By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has been offered $20,000 to pass a night in Kware, a Zamfara village to prove his claim that Nigeria is now safer under President Muhammadu Buhari.
The wager came from Reno Omokri, a former social media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. Omokri followed up the challenge by appointing Ovation publisher, Daily Momodu as the umpire, which Momodu accepted.
“As your umpire, I suggest our Brother @GarShehu takes up the challenge gratis as an avowed disciple of @MBuhari and call the bluff of @renoomokri and I will declare the winner asap..”
Omokri’s challenge to Garba Shehu was hinged on a press statement issued by the media aide in which he claimed that the Buhari’s administration has demonstrated the capacity to keep Nigerians safe.
Shehu had said: “The Buhari Administration has the will and has demonstrated unquestionable capacity to protect Nigerians. Those who doubt this Government’s resolve are mischievous. It is an administration empowered to draw enormous resilience from innate reservoirs of human resources, a network of reliable intelligence sources, and demonstrated expertise in scenario building and mediation.”
To prove that the claim was not the usual political sound bite, Omokri asked Shehu to pass a night in Kware, the den of Zamfara bandits or Koshobe, the scene of the massacre of more than 40 farmers in Borno state.
Omokri said in his tweet: “Garba Shehu said General @MBuhari has made Nigeria safer. I vow to pay @GarShehu $20000 if he will spend a night without security in Koshobe, or Kware, verified by an independent journalist. I will give the funds to @DeleMomodu when Garba accepts to go.”
Former Senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, wondered if Garba Shehu could hire the services of vigilantes.
But Garba Shehu said he would not take the challenge because according to him, the $20,000 could be part of a proceed from #FreeLeahSharibu campaign which Omokri has been leading.
Garba Shehu said: “If this is the money from the collections made in the name of Leah Sharibu, the unfortunate Christian girl stolen by Boko Haram, I won’t touch it with a long. Please keep ‘your USD20000’.”
But Omokri responded: “Dear @GarShehu I challenge you and the #Buhari administration, or anyone for that matter, to come up with proof that I have made even a penny from #FreeLeahSharibu. That aside, please focus on the issue at hand and accept my challenge. Stop dribbling.”