Mahdi Shehu, stop hedging, defend yourself

Sir: Most of us thought Mahdi would go to court a proud man, exuding with energy and pride, smiling and waving to his supporters, we thought he would address a cluster of journalists at the court premises and preempt the outcome of the court proceedings, we all thought he would make mouth same way Muhammad Ali often won boxing contests even before he entered the rings.

But alas, we saw a different Mahdi. Here was a man who repeatedly dared Katsina State Government and others to take him to court and prove him wrong. But when he was summoned by the court to substantiate his barrage of unsubstantiated allegations of financial misdeeds, what we saw was rather a melodrama.

To our dismay, Mahdi the Lion King on social media, appeared before the court a weak lamb. We saw him on crutches, screaming and wailing. Thanks to a video clip widely shared by the AIT, TVC, Arise TV and many national televisions which exposed him for what he is.

Now that Mahdi has exhausted all options available to him, instead of him to opt for dialogue by going the way of Sheikh Sanusi Khalil who once raised a damning allegations against the person of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, and when he couldn’t substantiate the allegations publicly apologised, Mahdi rather chose to resort to name calling the police officer investigating his case on his series of video clips.

Mahdi desperately wants to capitalise on his alleged personal relationship with the current Inspector General of Police. The IGP we all know with all his pedigree, his hard earned reputation in the Nigeria Police Force wouldn’t be instrumental to injustice.

It would be better for Mahdi to concentrate his energy on defending his myriad of cases before the many courts of law than trying to curry any favour. There is time for everyone to reap what he has sown.

Lawal Musa Unwala wrote from Katsina.