The immediate past governor of Borno State, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, met with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House, Abuja, on Wednesday and told correspondents later that he was not the mentor of the Boko Haram.

The chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Arewa Consultative Council (ACF), Lieutenent-General Jerry Useni (retd), had alleged during his visit to the State House, on Tuesday, that politicians of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in the state condoned the existence of the sect, because they used its members to prosecute elections.

Sheriff, who disclosed that he had not been to Borno since he left office, said he was in the State House to discuss matters that were important to him with the president, adding that there was already Boko Haram in Borno State before he became governor.

He also denied having anything to do with the arrest and subsequent execution of the sect leader.

According to him, “Boko Haram has been in existence before I became governor. The so-called leader of Boko Haram was arrested and was executed in Abuja before I even thought of becoming the governor of Borno State.

“So, people make comments on what they don’t know and in life, you don’t speak on matters that you are not very competent. Whoever said it that I am a mentor of Boko Haram, it is most unfortunate and there is no truth in the statement.”

The former governor also denied apologising specifically to Boko Haram as widely believed, saying what he did while he was leaving office was to apologise to the entire people of Borno State, including the sect, who he might have offended in the discharge of his duties.

“I didn’t apologise to Boko Haram. I apologised to every citizen of Borno State when I was leaving office in my speech on May 29. You can see that the Boko Haram said that they will stop what they were doing if the governors of Gombe, Bauchi and Borno apologise to them publicly. The two governors have done so publicly. I only lifted from my May 29 speech on what I have done in the last eight years.

“I said I have served them for eight years, I must have, in one way or the other, offended people. I ask everybody that I have offended, including Boko Haram to forgive me,” he said.

On a former member of the state executive council, Buji Foi, who was allegedly executed on account of his actions as a member of the radical sect, Sheriff said he had no hand in it.

“No. I want to make this very clear. Buji Foi was a politician. He was a chairman of his own local government area before I became the governor. And he was out of my cabinet two years before the Boko Haram crisis and if everybody that served in my cabinet will do something and I will be held responsible for it, then nobody can govern any state in Nigeria,” he said.

“Before the incident of Boko Haram, he was not in the government for two years. So, we couldn’t have taken responsibility and, most importantly, I didn’t know when Buji Foi was arrested or when he was killed and who arrested him and who killed him,” he said.

Sheriff said he was in the office of the State Security Service (SSS) recently of his own volition, adding that the solution to the Boko Haram crisis resided with every citizen.

“The solution is that every citizen of Borno State can help to bring solution to this. I am now an ex-governor and ordinary citizen of the state. So whatever I will do to bring an end to the crisis when I was the governor has been done,” he said.

On the ongoing military operation in Maiduguri, he said the problem in the area was serious and required serious solution, adding that “there are many ways of solving a problem. But when people are carrying bombs and guns, it is a serious problem that will need a solution, that also needs every possible intervention to control the situation.”