By Our Correspondent
The management of TheNews, PM News has criticised the comments credited to Shehu Mahdi claiming that journalist Bagauda Kaltho planted a bomb in the bookshop of the Durbar Hotel and was killed in the process.
Reacting to Mahdi Shehu’s claims, the management of The News PM News in a statement titled, “Bagauda Kaltho: The Many Lies of …. And Mahdi Shehu,” signed by its Executive Editor, Mr Kunle Ajibade faulted the claims on Bagauda Kaltho’s death suggesting he knew how and why the journalist was killed.
While dismissing Shehu as, ‘A shameless liar’, the management of the TheNews noted that what Shehu said is not different from lies earlier peddled on the issue on August 18 1998 by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (name withheld), who also headed the Task Force on Terrorist Activities.
They said the ACP then held a press conference at Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos and alleged that Bagauda Kaltho, their Kaduna State Senior Correspondent, died in a bomb blast at Durbar Hotel, Kaduna.
He also made spurious and grave allegations against Independent Communications Network Limited, publishers of TheNEWS, PM NEWS, AM NEWS and TEMPO, saying that they were a terrorist organisation.
The ACP alleged that Bagauda Kaltho was the ‘unidentified’ person who had allegedly planted a bomb at Durbar Hotel on 18 January 1996, and who was killed in the process. It noted that at the press conference the ACP showed reporters a video tape of the scene of the blast and two photographs. One was of a dead person whose body was burnt and who, he claimed, was Kaltho.
The management said the other was that of Kaltho as his colleagues and family members-knew him, while the second piece of evidence shown by the ACP was that of a video tape of an interview by Bauchi Television Authority (BATV) with General Muhammadu Buhari in 1994.
The tape was allegedly found at the scene of the blast and The ACP said this same interview had been published in TheNEWS of 4 September 1995, five months before the blast. The ACP also alleged that his Task Force on Terrorist Activities strongly suspected the management of ICNL of having connection with the Durbar Hotel bombing or else Bagauda Kaltho was acting independently of his employers.
Picking holes in Mahdi Shehu’s recent claims exhuming the issues after 27 years in its fact check, TheNews management averred that, “Durbar Hotel was bombed on 18 January 1996. Not 21 December 1995 as Mahdi claimed in his interview on Arise TV. Colonel Jafaru Isa has denied that Shehu was in his office to report the incident.
‘’If indeed General Sani Abacha had known of this story, would he not have asked the likes of Chief Tom Ikimi to weaponize it in their campaigns against America and the pro-democracy activists? Remember that was not long after Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists were hanged leading to condemnation all over the world.
‘’Who were some of the security officers who told him not to talk about the incident? Could Hanks as a secret service agent had worked in a lousy manner the way this fellow has described his interaction with him?
‘’The truth is that this man is a liar. A shameless liar.’’
The management pointed out that last year, Mahdi Shehu was arraigned in court in Katsina State over corruption allegations that he sensationally levelled against Governor Aminu Masari’s government.
‘’The video of the allegations is still being shared on social media. Many people believed his story until a judge in Katsina asked him to appear in court. Mahdi Shehu suddenly developed cold feet, pleading ill-health. When the court insisted, he was brought to the court on a stretcher. Walking with the aid of crutches, it took him close to thirty minutes to get inside the court. He pretended that he was dying, that his pain was excruciating, that his political enemies were bent on killing him.
‘’Unknown to him, while he was in court, a secret camera had been installed in his cell in Katsina Prison. As soon as he returned to the cell the pretence was gone. The video showed that the man was hale and hearty after all. In fact, he led a Muslim congregation in prayer that same day. The video subsequently went viral. Mahdi has been making frantic efforts since then to clean up his dented image.’’
The management lamented that the government like the previous regimes have failed woefully to investigate the gruesome murders of Bagauda Kaltho, Dele Giwa, Chief Alfred Rewane, Chief Bola Ige, M.K.O. Abiola, Barnabas and Abigail Igwe, Dr Harry Marshall, Victor Nwankwo, Chief A. K. Dikibo, among others.
“It is sad indeed that reprobates like Mahdi Shehu are now encouraged to play games with the treasured memories of these victims,’’ the management said.
Source: The Leadership less the Headline.
