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You weren’t here when we rebuilt this airport, ex-president rebukes Farmaajo, Khaire

Storyline:National News

Former president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has for the first time publicly lambasted President Mohamed Farmaajo and his prime minister Hassan Khaire accusing them of dictatorship.

In a hard-hitting public statement during a presser in Mogadishu, Ahmed who appointed Farmaajo his prime minister in 2011 said the two leaders were leading the country in the wrong direction noting they did not have the interests of the country at heart.

Noting that Farmaajo came with ‘only a suit and briefcase’ to become prime minister in 2011, Ahmed said he (Farmaajo) and Khaire ‘do not even know we were the one who first rebuilt the airport’.

“They have no investments in this country; they have foreign passports and tomorrow they will go away,” the former president said adding the country needed ‘salvation’ as it was ‘heading in the wrong direction’.

Ahmed was reacting to the decision by the government to bar him from travelling to Kismayu and subsequently banning all flights to the coastal city. Ahmed and his delegation were to head to Kismayu for the inauguration of Jubbaland president Ahmed Madobe.

The Federal Government has been at odds with Madobe following his controversial election last month.

Ahmed said it was ‘unimaginable for people who had stayed in Europe and U.S for over 30 years to practice such dictatorship’. “I am a mullah and people expected me to hold on to power. Some even told me to extend the term of office but I refused.”