By : Gbenga Akingbule
The North East Coalition for Truth, Justice and Responsible Leadership (NECTJRL) on Sunday reaffirmed it’s support for former Borno State, Governor, Senator Ali Modi Sheriff as the All Progressives Congress (APC) North East Campaign Coordinator for President Bola Tinibu and Vice President Kashim Shettima ahead of 2027 presidential election.
Gatekeepers News reports that NECTJRL also warn faceless groups from the North West part of Nigeria to desist from interfering in activities of the APC in the North East, stating that Senator Sheriff is the best choice to lead the Tinubu/ Shettima campaign in the region.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by the Chairman of NECTJRL, Alhaji Abba Chima and made available to journalists in Maiduguri the Borno State capital.
According to Chima , Senator Ali Modu Sheriff ” has served this country across two decades. Beyond office, he has mentored a generation of politicians and public servants now serving the North-East and Nigeria at large. Whatever one’s political persuasion, this record deserves honest engagement, not sponsored and masked petitions. If this is not stopped forthwith, we shall be forced to expose the identities of these identified sponsors.”
NECTJRL Chairman revead that there is curious geographic disconnect on ” why are the principal voices moving against Senator Ali Modu Sheriff’s appointment (as Northeast Coordinator) consistently originating from the same geopolitical zone – Northwest?”
” Let us analyze the pattern. The initial anti-Sheriff petition was championed by a purported Grassroots Movement rooted in Kebbi State led by one individual who is an insignia of Katsina State. Now, mirroring that exact playbook, a so-called “Borno IDPs Group” has surfaced, speaking not from any community in Borno State, nor even from an established North-East enclave, but loudly from Kano State.
” This geographic anomaly exposes the proxy nature of these campaigns. Why must the “welfare” or political sentiment of the people of northeast and the ’displaced Borno citizens’ be proxied, packaged, and broadcasted from commercial and political hubs in the Northwest? True stakeholders of the North-East are domiciled at home, experiencing the steady restoration of peace and the heavy rebuilding strides of our region firsthand. When phantom organizations deploy Northwest platforms to dictate political arrangements in the North-East, it strips away their local legitimacy and unmasks a transparent, sponsored script designed to manufacture artificial regional friction.
” We have investigated and established that there is no formal or officially registered IDP camp in Kano State. This is a verifiable fact, not our opinion. Under His Excellency Governor Babagana Zulum, Borno State has gone to extraordinary lengths, beyond our borders and beyond what many governments would attempt, to close camps and resettle displaced families in their ancestral communities. A group invoking the IDP identity from a location with no known camp owes the public clarity: who exactly do you represent, and where do your members reside?
” Furthermore, no Borno State indigene who relocated to Kano during the height of the insurgency stayed as an IDP dependent on charity. Instead, they purchased their own homes and moved in with their families with dignity, escaping the madness of unpatriotic individuals like yourself. This is evident from the fact that there is not a single known IDP camp in Kano hosting Borno indigenes, contrary to your claims.” NECTJRL Chairman said.
