Date Published: 06/01/11

Northern Leaders meet in Abuja, plot to stop Jonathan, and take over PDP for 2015

LEADERS of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and leading political figures from the North have unveiled a secret plot take over the structures of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2015 general election. The secret agenda also includes plots to checkmate activities of President Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn in for a fresh term of four years on Sunday.

Sources at a multiparty meeting held on May 20, in Abuja, at the instance of ACF national chairman, Alhaji Aliko Mohammed, which featured representatives of the Unity Forum (UF), some northern leaders and leaders of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) claimed that the meeting was said to have concluded on the need for the North to take over the PDP ahead of the 2015 elections.

The meeting was said to have resolved to do everything possible to ensure the election of a northern president in 2015, while also checkmating Jonathan. A source at the meeting said: “The meeting took place in the late hours of May 20 in Maitama District of Abuja. Participants were generally angry about the state of the North, especially the marginalisation of the North in key offices of the land. Participants deliberated on the imperative for consolidation and strategies towards ensuring the emergence of a northern president in 2015.” Those at the meeting included officials of the ACF, CPC, UF and some key northern leaders, a representative of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, a senator-elect of the CPC, among others.

Other names at the meeting included Gambo Ahmed, a member of UF; Senator Abu Ibrahim; former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Gidado Idris; Dr Sule Yahaya Hamma of the CPC; Senator Adamu Aliero, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory; Alhaji Sani Minista represented Alhaji M.D. Yusufu, former Inspector General of Police, while a participant whose name was given as Alhaji Mahmud, represented Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Others included Alhaji Murtala Usman Aliyu and Alhaji Ahmed Al-ghazali. It was gathered that the meeting resolved to ensure that President Jonathan is successfully checkmated through the digging up of vital information about the government and his person.

A source further said of the resolutions of the meeting: “The meeting agreed that there is the need for the realisation of northern presidency project in 2015, as well as the question of leadership in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It has become imperative that the success of northern desires in 2015 will largely depend eventually on who secures the PDP leadership now.” One of the leaders was said to have accused the current leaders of the PDP from the North as only working against the interests of the North.

It was also revealed that some persons actually plotted to derail the government of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, when it became obvious that he could not continue as president when he returned from the medical trip to Saudi Arabia early in 2010.

One of the participants was said to have told the meeting that but for certain meetings that did not hold and the lack of coordination among ministers of the then government, as well as the former First Lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, a change of government would have been effected to preserve the status quo and prevent a Jonathan presidency.

Courtesy Tribune