Civil rights activist and former Senator representing Kaduna Central, Comrade Shehu Sani, has finally entered their net, and it is not likely that the man would be out anytime so soon. For long, Shehu Sani was their target. He was in their watchlist. Sani is one of those vocal voices that must be stopped at all cost. This would make Nigeria “peaceful”, peace of the graveyard. Several others have already been dealt with.
Shehu Sani is loquacious. He is a talkative. He opens his mouth too wide to say many useless things, any useless idea that crosses his mind. Even when he was denied a return ticket to the Senate, he would still not keep quiet. He would not keep his mouth shut. He continued to talk, and to tweet.
Now, Shehu Sani is in trouble. He has become a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and he would likely remain as their guest, at least, till the next two weeks. He had already spent his New Year Day in the EFCC net.
The former Kaduna Senator was alleged to have exhorted $10,000 from a businessman, a car dealer, Alhaji Sani Dauda, to facilitate his case with the EFCC. He was said to have promised the businessman that he would give the money to the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.
But Shehu Sani has denied collecting any money from Sani Dauda. He said that “since he does not work with EFCC, he could not have asked for cash to intercede on a case on Dauda’s behalf with the acting EFCC chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu.” But they would not believe him.
The businessman had petitioned the EFCC, claiming that Sani had exhorted $10,000 from him. According to the story, the issue started on November 14, 2019. The two men had met on November 19th on the cases involving the businessman and the EFCC. About N5 million was allegedly given to the Senator, through a bureau de change operator, to address the case in court.
“On November 20, 2019, the Senator further had an audience with the businessman where he was said to have promised to reach out to the EFCC and its prosecutor. He was also alleged to have claimed that the investigators were demanding cash to give to the Acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
“At this stage, the car dealer became suspicious and claimed that he did not have $20,000, but he could afford $10,000 with the balance for payment after the intercession. Despite this payment, there was no positive feedback from the former Senator “.
When Sani Dauda visited the EFCC last Thursday, he further implicated the former Senator. He alleged that Shehu Sani also dropped the name of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko. According to him, Shehu Sani had asked him to bring N4m which would be given to a judge by the CJN to ensure that the case by one Abubakar against the ASD boss did not see the light of the day.”
Dauda further claimed that he gave the $10,000 to Sani on November 29, 2019, adding that the ex-lawmaker also demanded another N1m for the EFCC officials.
Following the new allegations raised by Dauda against the former Senator, the EFCC obtained a court order to keep him in custody for two weeks to enable them to “carry out a thorough investigation into the matter”.
These are very serious allegations, and we do not see Shehu Sani coming out unscratched. Some people said that it was a set up, a planned deal, that the former Senator could not have soiled his hands in such a dirty deal. We do not know. Only those who hold the knife and the yam know what happened, and they would in due course, decide who is right and who is wrong.
Perhaps, Shehu Sani might have played into their hands. He might have been the architect of his own misfortune. A radical left, always at logger heads with the system, Sani decided to dine with the devil, but he did not use a long spoon.
Shehu Sani was a long time critic of the authorities. He had been to jail several times. In 2015, he decided to join the establishment, to become part of the system, in order to gain political power. He sought to become a Senator, and was elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
On getting to the Senate, Shehu Sani began to see some awful things, some sordid things, some very bad things. He was uncomfortable. He was worried. He was disturbed. He began to open his mouth to vomit, to tell us what we did not know before.
Those who put him in the Senate were not happy. They were annoyed. They had wanted to use him as a poster, as advertisement for progressivism. But the man refused to play ball. He refused to identify with them. Rather, he began to criticize the administration and joined ranks in the Senate with those who were opposed to what was going wrong.
When they possibly could not remove him from the Senate, they waited at the next election to deal with him. During the APC primaries, Shehu Sani was denied a return ticket. He resigned from the party and went back to the progressive camp and picked the Senatorial ticket of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). But that was too late, as he could not make any impact during the main elections.
They had thought that Shehu Sani, out of power, would be in the cold, that he was no longer going to disturb them. But the man continued to talk and to tweet.
Now that Shehu Sani is in the EFCC custody, at least, he would no longer give us any headache. In other words, we are going to have our peace until the former Senator settles his case with the EFCC!
