Garba Shehu Berates Sowore For Calling Late Funtua ‘Arrogant Old Man’

Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, have engaged in verbal exchange on social media over the latter’s attack on the late elder statesman, Isma’ila Isa Funtua.

Funtua, who was a close friend of President Buhari, had died of reported heart attack at the age of 78 on Monday.

Sowore had, in a live Instagram interview with Seye Kehinde of City People magazine, described the late Funtua as “very arrogant old man” for allegedly threatening him while he was in detention of the Department of State Services (DSS).

According to the 2019 presidential aspirant, Funtua and Garba Shehu had led a delegation of newspaper publishers to him in detention to pressurise him to drop his “#RevolutionNow” protest against the Buhari government.

Sowore said Funtua personally told him that no single person could fight a government and emerge victorious.

He said, “After I ran for office (president), I declared that we needed a revolution and I was arrested. And I did not renounce it, even when they sent a delegation to me in detention led by Isa Funtua and Garba Shehu to ask me to renounce the revolution, I refused and said it is not possible until we find a country that belongs to all of us.

“And Isa Funtua said to me specifically that nobody has ever fought a government and won…Very arrogant old man like that.

“I told him, well, maybe for the first time you will find somebody who can win against the government. I don’t know if it’s me, but I know this system is not sustainable,” said the Sahara Reporters publisher.

“You Can’t Defeat The Gov’t”-My DSS detention encounter with Isa Funtua – the man who once described himself as the @mbuhari “Cabal” pic.twitter.com/bARyXUVXOf

— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) July 21, 2020

But responding in a series of tweets on Tuesday, Shehu told Sowore that there was no gain in “attacking a dead soul”.

He wrote, “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.”

ISMA’ILA ISA: SOWORE HAS NOTHING TO GAIN BY ATTACKING A DEAD SOUL.

Let’s get the facts straight on the meeting with Sowore in SSS detention.

— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) July 21, 2020

But commenting under Shehu’s post on Twitter, Sowore mocked the presidential aide and called him an “errand boy” whom he patted on the back when he visited him in detention.

He said, “Glad you admitted you led a delegation to meet me in DSS detention because the delegates said you arranged it.

“It is very true that I was nice to your team because you weren’t my problem, you were just an errand boy. In fact I patted you on the back saying I had never met you before you were respectful but I knew you were there on a hatchet job.

“You mentioned that the DSS may have a tape, in fact I was told that was the plan before you even arrived.

“Contrary to your lie, I refused to enter into any agreement with you because I insisted only the presence on my lawyer could make that possible.

“My insistence then got Isa Funtua riled and he said that my lawyer was only grandstanding and that he too had been imprisoned by Buhari in 1983 and that no one can defeat the government. Your wicked self kept quiet but Nduka noticing I was upset took me to the DO’s ante room.

“When I arrived downstairs I made a telephone call to my lawyer, Femi Falana in the presence of the DSS officials telling him that I do not want to negotiate my freedom and that when he meets your team he should restate my position, he did exactly that, your team got upset again.

“Soon as I made that call to Falana I was stopped from ever making any further calls until my continued detention became an INT’L issue, I was then offered a bugged cell phone with which I granted an interview to @PremiumTimesng, while I was calling my family the phone was seized.”