The Presidency has fired back at Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over his recent comments suggesting that Vice-President Kashim Shettima should be removed from office.
In a statement released on Friday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice-President), Stanley Nkwocha, dismissed Baba-Ahmed’s remarks as “obsessive vituperation” and “beer parlour gossip.”
Nkwocha’s reaction followed Baba-Ahmed’s appearance on Arise Television, where the LP chieftain questioned Shettima’s continued stay in office and canvassed support for an opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
News360 Info reports that the presidential aide in his reaction said, “In the said interview, Baba-Ahmed expressed his frustrations on why the president had yet to remove the vice-president from office for not a single reason or offence he evidently linked the vice-president with, but merely to soothe his ego and wish.
“Well, the bad news for him is that his frustration is just beginning.”
The vice-president’s media aide took a swipe at Baba-Ahmed’s political history, recalling that his 2011 senatorial election was nullified by the tribunal, which declared former Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Makarfi, as the rightful winner.
“The real definition of political desperation and desire to capture power can only be situated in Datti’s political trajectory when the courts sent him packing from the Senate for rigging elections,” Nkwocha said.
He further accused Baba-Ahmed of “openly falling short of calling for a military coup” following the Labour Party’s defeat in 2023, warning that his utterances bordered on dangerous desperation.
Defending Vice-President Shettima, Nkwocha described him as a “loyal and dependable ally” of President Bola Tinubu and an “intellectual powerhouse” who came to office through merit and grace.
He stated, “Shettima has never lost an election. He has served as a banker, commissioner, governor, senator, and now Vice-President, all earned, not gifted.”
According to Nkwocha, Shettima embodies the total loyalty expected of the office he occupies and has continued to “market the programmes of this administration with unbridled gusto and conviction both in Nigeria and all over the world.”
Nkwocha warned that the office of the vice-president would no longer ignore “unfounded” criticisms from opposition figures.
“Attacks like this would henceforth not go without a response from us,” he stated.
