Sen. Victor Lar, Campaign Director, Ali-Modu Sheriff Campaign Organisation, has debunked allegations that Sen. Ali-Modu Sheriff, has links with the Boko Haram sect.
Lar debunked the allegations in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that Sheriff, a frontline All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairmanship aspirant, a two-term former governor of Borno and a former senator, had no links with Boko Haram.
Lar also said that the insinuations that Sheriff’s tenure as APC’s next national chairman if elected, would be characterised by litigations because he had cases with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could not be true.
“Sheriff’s name is not on the list of sponsors of Boko Haram released by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), security agencies have been investigating him since he left office in 2011 and had not found him guilty of the allegations.
“If he was involved, he would have been arrested or his involvement made public. In any case, I challenge anyone with information proving his involvement to come forth with such.
“Having a case with the EFCC means standing trial or being prosecuted. The sheriff is not standing trial. In any case, those alleging should go to EFCC,” Lar said.
He, therefore, dismissed the allegations, saying it was a function of misinformation and a figment of the imagination of those spreading it.
He stressed that Sheriff had never gone to court or taken the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to court when he was its national chairman as was being insinuated.
Lar explained that Sheriff was not the complainant, but the defendant as PDP national chairman, assuring that under his watch as APC’s next national chairman if, given the opportunity, there would be no litigations.
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“I bet you, there will be no litigations at all. If there will be, the number will reduce because alternative dispute resolution mechanisms will be put in place,” he stressed.
He, however, said that there was a need for the APC leadership to negotiate the possibility of having a consensus national chairmanship candidate, ahead of its National Convention to ensure a rancour-free national convention.
Lar, while speaking on his expectations for the party’s forthcoming national convention slated for Feb. 26, said the party would need to do lots of negotiations ahead of the convention
“We will have to do a lot of horse-trading to land safely, the whole thing is likely going to be an anti-climax.
“The factions that followed the party’s 2021 State Congresses can only threaten the election if there is voting.
“But if it is a consensus or by presidential approval, it is going to be an anti-climax and then we will land safely. The moment there is a consensus, everybody will sheath their swords,” Lar said.
