By Joseph Obukata
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity on Tuesday night threatened to release tape of what transpired between Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of Sahara Reporters, and some notable Nigerians who met him while in detention.
This followed Sowore’s claims that President Muhammadu Buhari’s late ally, Isa Funtua and other notable personality who paid him a visit while he was in the DSS custody were emissaries of President Buhari.
Sowore claimed that Funtua had asked him to put aside his ‘revolutionary views’ and stop fighting the government for him to be released.
His remarks came a day after Isa Funtua had died of cardiac arrest.
But reacting to the claims, Shehu said that Sowore was trying to distort what transpired and warned him to refrain from making certain claims about President Buhari’s late ally, Isa Funtua.
He noted that the Department of State Services may be forced to release a tape of Funtua and other newspaper publishers’ visit to the Publisher of Sahara Reporters.
He said: “Let’s get the facts straight on the meeting with Sowore in SSS detention. First, it is important to state that the meeting was not instructed by the government. Nobody sent anybody to go and negotiate Sowore’s freedom as he put it.
“The late Malam Isma’ila (Funtua), on his own called me to ask that I broker a meeting with him and two others with the SSS, which they agreed to. It is important that I state that it was the force of Malam Isma’ila’s argument that made the meeting possible.
“Vanguard Newspapers publisher, Sam Amuka and ThisDay Publisher and President, Nigerian Press Organisation, Nduka Obaigbena, all agreed that Sowore was a ‘rascal’, who had used his newspaper ‘to abuse all of us,’ but agreed, nonetheless to go and press for his release.
“The meeting ended well, and contrary to the posturing by Sowore, he said he was happy with a resolution proposed but that his lawyer, whoever that was, needed to come on board. The fence-mending process apparently collapsed after the meeting of the trio with the lawyer in Lagos.
“Knowing the way the secret service works, it should surprise no one if they keep a recording of that meeting. Faced with this posturing and the unfair attacks on the dead, we certainly will be forced to ask for the release of tapes, in case they are available for the public to judge.”
Meanwhile, Sowore in a swift reaction, dared the presidential aide to release the tape of the meeting the trio had with him while in detention including the ones with late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, and DG DSS.
Sowore, who is currently on bail, is facing trial for alleged treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking”.
