A self-acclaimed whistle blower Mahdi Shehu has disowned a letter making the rounds purportedly written by him in which he was said to have apologised to Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari and the people of the state over his “false publication”.
Dateline Nigeria reports that the letter dated 23 September, 2021 and addressed to Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari and copied to the Secretary to the Katsina State Government Mustapha Inuwa has gone viral on social media platforms.
Titled “Apology Letter”, it reads: “I hereby wish to tender my apology to your Excellency and all the good people of Katsina state for the damaging publications I have been releasing which are false, malicious, detracting and dubious that has caused serious damaging effect to the Government and the good people of Katsina State.
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“I hope your Excellency, will accept my sincere apology and forgive me tor all the diversion and confusion I have caused all along which not only tarnished the image of Katsina State Government and All Progressives Congress Party but the entire citizens of Katsina State.
“Similarly, I hereby wish to request your Excellency, to kindly consider and approve for me to pay a courtesy visit to your Excellency with a view to tender my apology personally at any convenient date and time.
“Finally, I wish to once more apologize for all my misdeeds.”
But speaking to Dateline Nigeria, Shehu, a Kaduna based businessman, said the letter was forged and never emanated from him, even as he drew the attention of our reporter to a video recording he did where he disowned it.
In the video, he said “Around 4pm on Thursday, somebody drew my attention and forwarded to me a letter. That letter was said to have been written by me, offered by and signed by me using Dialogue Group letter-headed paper.
“The content is that I was apologising to the governor for all I have been saying about his government, for all my crusade, I was being apologetic, I was admitting my guilt, I was being sober and I was begging for forgiveness.
“Initially I waved away the letter as part of 21st century desperation by senile, inept, unintelligent, casual people who have neither vision nor mission in life.
“But on second thought, after some minutes I said well, people are of different categories: some are sensible, some have good sense of judgment, some are not endowed in doing that. I wouldn’t know where that letter will fall and the impression it will create. So I should address that letter and this is my message.
“This first is that I am disclaiming that letter 101 percent. That letter did not emanate from me, that was not my signature. It is also not the letter-head of my company. It is a forged document.
“But I think what they want to achieve by that document, whoever they are, is that recently there was an unintelligent letter that Arise TV dissected, that had to do with a gubernatorial executive order, full of inaccuracies, inconsistencies and lack of industry of administration, which the Katsina State Government came out openly and denied.
“What they are saying now is that, if Mahadi comes out openly and deny this letter as forged and people believe him, then they must believe El-Marzuq, who came out to deny that letter. That is their own problem. I allow people to judge, but I make the following categorical statement:
“I could not have written that letter, fully aware that we are before several courts on the same issues they raised in the letter.
“Secondly, those who know me very well – you may know me, but not very well. SO those who don’t know me very well should know me from today that if I have a conviction about an issue, I go head-on, I go full-force. I travel extra length, extra mile, extra speed, with no apology, to ensure that I arrive the destination whether with injuries, with lacerations, with broken legs, with broken head, I will ensure that I arrive there.
“I am not a coward. I will be the last person in my life to apologise to Masari, neither to Mustapha Inuwa, nor to El-Marzuq, nor to any government official in Katsina State. I have passed that age. I am fully convinced that those who are sensible enough would have waived away this letter as stupid, nonsensical even before this my response.
“Let me tell you for the umpteenth time. Were I to meet in person with Aminu Bello Masari, or with El-Marzuq or with Mustapha Inuwa in any of the holiest mosques in Makkah, Madina or Baitul Muqaddis, were I to meet them there on a ritual visit on Hajj, or Umrah, were anyone of them, or all of them to extend me the greetings of peace, I will not reply them because I have no reason to be peaceful with them.”
