Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has countered remarks by Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser, that the northeast was able to participate in the 2015 general election due to the intervention of the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Dasuki made the claims in the forward of a book entitled: ‘Boko Haram media war – an encounter with the spymaster’, written by Yushau Shuaib.

“In fact, without our intervention in ensuring the defeat of Boko Haram, the electorate could not have had the opportunity to exercise their franchise,” he had said.

“It is a fact that we provided peace and stability that afforded Nigerians, especially in the northeast in voting for their governors, legislators and others in the 2015 elections.”

But in his reply on Monday, Shehu said the comments were “another unfortunate attempt … to rewrite the history of our country in such a way as to cover the sins of the past”.

“The truth, as a matter of fact is that the monster of terrorism got bigger and more daring due to the incompetence and misgovernance of the last administration and no amount lies and fiction can change that,” he said.

He insisted that as of March 2015, when elections were held, many local government areas in the northeast were completely under the control of Boko Haram.

“Elections in those areas had to be moved to safe areas. The residents of areas such as Gwoza, Banki, Kukawa, Monguno, Bulumba, Baga, Gamboru Ngala, Dikwa, Mafa, etc., were able to vote, not in their hometowns but in refugee camps in other parts of Borno State, under special arrangements made by INEC,” he said.

“Despite Mr. Dasuki’s attempt to rewrite history, Nigerians could not have forgotten the embarrassing stories of failed weapons that plagued our country’s military during the previous administration, when unserviceable weapons, expired ammunition and fake armored vehicles caused untold grief to our valiant armed forces on the battlefield, with arms exploding willy nilly and guns failing to fire.

“It is for trespasses like these that the Buhari administration is determined to get to the bottom of the $2.1 billion arms procurement scandal and ensure that no single one of the culprits goes scot-free.”