Mr. Shettima stated this in a statement on Monday by his spokesperson, Isa Gusau.The former governor was reacting to media reports on Monday quoting Mr. Dokubo as alleging that no girl was abducted in Chibok and that Governor Shettima and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, staged the kidnap to hit at President Goodluck Jonathan ahead off 2015 elections.
“Governor Shettima is too serious minded to reply Asari Dokubo who is just a joker as most Nigerians regard him,” the spokesperson said.
“As a onetime journalist covering the Niger Delta, I had come in direct contact with Asari when he organised a rally in support of late Gaddafi in Port Harcourt and also when he organized the 2011/2012 Isaac Boro lecture in Port Harcourt which he kept interrupting, taking over the microphone from people like respected lawyers like Festus Keyamo, intermittently speaking without protocol and without shame like a child.
“He is just a joke, no reasonable Nigerian takes him serious. He was reported saying Chibok abduction was a sham, I won’t be surprised if by next week the same Asari Dokubo leads another rally to counter the one he just held. Last year, Asari was reported speaking against Presidency, then he changed tune now we don’t know what happened but that is how he is, he uses the media for personal interest and some sort of blackmail.
“He wants to be regarded as a hero but I tell you that no one sees him as such in the Niger Delta that I had covered. He is trying to force unwilling public to see him different from who he is but like a say goes, ‘you can fool some people all the time, you can fool all the people sometime but you cannot fool all the people all the time’.
“Asari dubiously took advantage of Isaac Boro event which attracts participants to say what he said so that the procession would seem like a support base for his isolated opinion. I saw some pictures of some girls in one house displaying some placards, from the faces, I think he probably assembled some of his immediate and extended family members and gave them placards.”
He alleged that, “One person wrote on all the cards, the same writing, all of which look like a sort of Mickey Mouse scene in cartoon series.”
“How can Governor Shettima reply a jester, how can he respond to such a play by Asari that falls far below the standard of Nollywood when he is busy working very hard with all relevant bodies finding ways on how to secure the freedom of his and Borno’s precious daughters in captivity?” Mr. Gusau said.
The spokesperson said Asari Dokubo is one of those creating negative impression about the presidency.
“(The) earlier the Presidency distances its self from Asari, the quicker his childish views don’t do further damage to those he tries to please,” he said.
Source: Premium Times
