Sacked Ganduje Aide Mocks Buhari, Says President Issuing ‘Confusing’ Ultimatums To Terrorists, Bandits

Despite recently losing his job for criticising President Muhammadu Buhari, Salihu Tanko Yakassai has taken a fresh dig at the president for allegedly paying lip service to the issue of banditry and general insecurity in the country.

The former supporter-turned-critic of Buhari said the president had formed the habit of issuing threats and conflicting ultimatums to bandits and terrorists each time they attack innocent citizens.

According to Yakassai, bandits and terrorists were now “confused” as to which of the president’s ultimatums to follow.

“To be honest, you’re confusing these bandits/terrorists. Last week in Zamfara you gave them 2 months notice, today na stern warning, which one should they take seriously Mallam Garba? If I’m a father with a kid in boarding school in the affected States, I’ll withdraw them kawai,” he said in a tweet on Saturday.

Yakassai was reacting to a statement issued on Saturday by presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, in which the president was quoted as issuing “a stern warning to would-be terrorists and bandits targeting schools” in the country.

Buhari’s warning to the armed criminals followed an attack on the Federal College Of Forestry Mechanization, Kaduna State, where about 30 students were said to have been abducted in the early hours of Friday.

Shehu had said that his boss warned the bandits and terrorists that his administration, “will not allow the destruction of the school system.”

Yakassai, who until recently was a special adviser on media to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, had recently called for President Buhari’s resignation after bandits abducted about 279 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in Jangebe, Zamfara State.

The former Kano governor’s aide had said that leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had failed “at all level”.

Governor Ganduje had fired him on the grounds that his personal opinions may be mistaken as his administration’s official position “on matters of public concern”.

THE WHISTLER reported that Yakassai said last week that he had gained more goodwill as a critic of Buhari than as a supporter of the president.