Presidency blasts Datti Baba-Ahmed over comments on VP Shettima

The Presidency has responded strongly to recent remarks made by the Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Datti Baba-Ahmed, where he suggested that Vice-President Kashim Shettima should be removed from office.

In a statement released on Friday, Stanley Nkwocha, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice-President), described Baba-Ahmed’s comments as “obsessive vituperation” and “beer parlour gossip.”

This reaction came after Baba-Ahmed appeared on Arise Television, where he questioned why Shettima was still in office and also called for unity among opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

In his statement, the presidential aide 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.”

Nkwocha also took aim at Baba-Ahmed’s past in politics, noting that his 2011 senatorial election was cancelled by the tribunal, which ruled in favour of former Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Makarfi.

He stated, “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 went further to accuse Baba-Ahmed of being dangerously desperate, saying he had “openly fallen short of calling for a military coup” after the Labour Party lost the 2023 election.

Defending Vice-President Shettima, Nkwocha praised him as a “loyal and dependable ally” of President Bola Tinubu and called him an “intellectual powerhouse” who earned his position through hard work and merit.

He said, “Shettima has never lost an election. He has served as a banker, commissioner, governor, senator, and now Vice-President, all earned, not gifted.”

Nkwocha added that Shettima represents the full loyalty expected from the office he holds and continues to promote the administration’s programmes with great energy and belief both in Nigeria and abroad.

He also warned that the office of the vice-president would no longer stay silent in the face of “unfounded” criticism from opposition figures.

“Attacks like this would henceforth not go without a response from us,” he stated.