The chieftains are said to have remained aggrieved about the outcome of the 2019 governorship elections in Borno and have regrouped ahead of 2023, the group alleges.
The President, Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance in Nigeria (COCMEGG), Comrade Kenneth Aigbegbele raised the alarm in a statement he issued on Thursday.
Aigbegbele revealed that already, the chieftains have planted a mischievous allegation in the social media space, claiming that Shettima has been boasting of being worth $900m in cash.
The plotters, he added, went as far as fabricating a fake Wikipedia page to support the false narrative.
“Since December, 2019, a group of seven chieftains of the APC in Borno state, five of whom are former public office holders and two of them in public service, have been making frantic efforts against one of their own, former Governor Shettima.
“Their main grievance is the outcome of the 2019 governorship election and ahead of 2023. Our particular concern is the fact that these chieftains have been shopping for civil societies they can recruit into their evil mission.
“The group has recruited two experts on ICT and social media engagements and have also gone far in trying to register a pseudo civil society platform they call Northeast Vanguard Against Corruption and Bad Governance, with the singular objective of leading vicious media campaigns against the Shettima and the current Borno administration
“Their aim is to have Shettima humiliated whether by the EFCC and ICPC or by losing at the polls in 2023 should he seek reelection for the Borno Central Senatorial seat which he now occupies.
“As part of their mission, the chieftains recently planted through one of their associates, a mischievous narrative on Twitter, that former Shettima has been claiming he is worth $900m which is equivalent to nearly N400 billion.
“This outrageous claim means Shettima is now worth more than the combination of federal allocation and internally generated revenue his government received in the eight years he was Governor of Borno” the coalition said.
Aigbegbele noted that the chieftains had, with the services of their two ICT experts, mischievously edited a wikipedia page which they screenshot and shared through the social media, claiming that Shettima is worth $900m and has failed to account for N200 billion.
“Fact is that anyone who googles Kashim Shettima on Wikipedia will not see anything relating to $900m on the wikipedia page because that addition could not stand”, the coalition said.
Aigbegbele appealed to the media, credible civil society organisations and the Nigerian public to be wary of orchestrated attacks by promoters of fake news.
