Omoyele Sowore, Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) and publisher of SaharaReporters online newspaper, has revealed that Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, used to send him documents which he used in publishing stories aimed at frustrating the government of former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sowore made the disclosure in an interview on Arise TV the documents were used in countering President Obasanjo’s government for the benefit of then Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku was Nigeria’s Vice-President from 1999 to 2007, while Obasanjo was his boss. Both men endured a frosty relationship, which the former was always vocal about after their years in office.
According to Sowore, “when Garba Shehu used to work with him (Atiku) as Special Assistant (SA), they used to send me documents from their side – I’m revealing it for the first time – to counter Obasanjo, in those days that they were on each other’s neck.”
When he left his job at the Triumph newspapers in Kano State, Shehu proceeded to the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON), Ikot-Abasi as the Pioneer DGM (Public Relations). It was from there, in 2003, that he joined Atiku as Special Assistant Media.
He was Atiku’s ally until the penultimate general elections in Nigeria.
In 2015, Shehu was appointed the Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the presidential campaign council. In 2015, he was appointed Buhari’s aide, and was reappointed after the President was sworn in for another term of four years.