‘How Shettima Secretly Visited Jos, Met APC Leaders, INEC Officials’

Nigeria’s Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, has been accused of secretly visiting Jos, the Plateau State capital, just after the presidential election.

The Middle Belt Youth Forum (MBYF), while expressing disdain and contempt, disclosed that Shettima held a series of meetings with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Jos, allegedly to rig Saturday’s governorship election in favour of APC.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the Acting National Coordinator MBYF, Captain Brent Kane, said the forum would resist any plot to rig the election.

Showing his alleged disdain for Plateau people, Kane said Shettima, upon arrival in Jos, went straight to visit Izala Islamic Cleric in the state, Sheikh Yahaya Jingir, without paying any respect to the Gbong Gwom Jos, who is the chairman of the state Traditional Council.

He said: “This insult and denigration of our traditional institution reveals the desperation of APC to Isolate the indigenous people of Plateau from the political scheme of Nigeria and enthrone strangers as leaders over our people, which will never see the light of day.

“All the governorship candidates in the state are proud sons of Middle Belt and cannot be denied whatever support and solidarity in their quest to govern the state.

“Nevertheless, we state, without mincing words, that Plateau has an identity that is rooted in Christianity, which nobody can deny.”