By Emmanuel Nduka
The Nigerian Government has denied receiving advisory from the Department of State Service (DSS) against the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as reported by local online media, Peoples Gazette on Friday.
Reports had emerged of a certain document of the intelligence agency warning the President Muhammadu Buhari Government against a Muslim-Muslim ticket, noting that it would trigger crisis across the country.
Heritage Times HT had reported that Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the APC, had picked Kashim Shettima, former Borno State Governor and a Muslim, as his running mate, a decision that continues to stir up controversy and religious shear.
But the Presidency in a statement on Friday night, said the report of the advisory against the ticket by the DSS is false and fabricated by the online newspaper seeking to sow division.
“We wish to advise well-meaning Nigerians to ignore a laughably puerile report by an apparently-pirate online newspaper seeking to sow division and chaos on the choice of Senator Kashim Shettima as the Running Mate of our Party’s Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” the statement said.
“The story that there is a DSS report that has been presented to the President on the APC Running Mate is FALSE. No such report exists.
“The so-called newspaper making the claim is like a deadly virus. Nigerians are advised to stay safe by keeping away from its toxic reports,” it added.
Meanwhile, Peoples Gazette had claimed receipt of the DSS document from national security officials earlier in the week, which it said got to the President through the National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno.
“The SSS produced the report and handed a copy to the NSA. The NSA looked at the report and added it for security briefing to the president.
“Simply put, our understanding is that the alliance will destabilise Nigeria and embolden attacks on Christian citizens from their fellow Muslim citizens. The distrust Christians are likely to harbour against a presidency occupied by two Muslims won’t make our work easy at national security level,” Gazette quoted its source as saying.
“By the time our analysts reassessed the state of the country right now and what would likely come out of a Muslim president and vice-president, everything tilted towards negative and very dangerous times ahead.
“We have it in our files that Tinubu went to the president to ask him about who to pick but the president was very reluctant to contribute and Tinubu noticed this before walking away. We have a role to play towards safeguarding national security and our report was not intended as a political intervention,” it added.
