Mahdi Shehu, stop the blackmail face your trial

Most of us thought Mahdi would go to court a proud man, exuding 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 the same way Muhammad Ali often did at boxing contests even before he entered the ring.

But alas, we saw a different Mahdi. Here was a man who repeatedly dared Katsina State government and all his victims 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.

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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.

Now that Mahdi has exhausted all options available to him, instead of him to opt for dialogue he rather chose to resort to blackmailing the police officer investigating his case.

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 favour of the new IGP. It’s time for Mahdi to face the music, to reap what he had sown.

Lawal Musa Unwala, writes from Katsina