The Nation Newspaper

Tag: plot

  • 2015: Yar’Adua group not involved in secret plot, say Aliero, others

    2015: Yar’Adua group not involved in secret plot, say Aliero, others

    The associates of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua yesterday said they are not involved in any secret plot against President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 elections.

    They also claim they are not being pressurised by North’s leaders for any political cause in 2015.

    They denied holding any secret meeting with the former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change(CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    The group made the clarifications in a statement in Abuja by a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory , Senator Adamu Aliero.

    Aliero claimed to have issued the statement on behalf of a former National Security Adviser, Gen. Sarki Mukhtar; ex-Minister of Water Resources, Alhaji Sayyed Abba Ruma; and a former Chief Economic Adviser, Alhaji Yakubu Tanimu.

    The statement reads: “In the last three years, those of us referred to in the story have not held any meeting over any national issue, let alone talk of 2015. Instead, we have been going about our activities with utmost decorum.

    “We did not meet in Abuja, Katsina or Kaduna as insinuated in the report. We have no reason to conspire or plot against President Goodluck Jonathan who was Vice-President to the late President Yar’Adua.

    “Since Yar’Adua’s death, we have done our best to support the administration of President Jonathan and our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which went ahead to win a re-run in Kebbi State.

    “None of us has lived in trenches; we have no basis to go back to political trenches. We are not guerilla or subterranean politicians.

    “We are not involved in political conspiracy or insurgency. To confer this derogatory status on us is to assume that we are at war with the state or President Jonathan. We have no cause to engage in any political conspiracy.

    “As for 2015, we remain committed to PDP and we will support whoever emerges as the presidential candidate of the party. If the PDP gives President Jonathan or any party member its mandate in 2015, we will work for the success of the party.”

    On the allegation that they are being encouraged by eminent North’s leaders to regain power for the geopolitical zone in 2015, they said it is not true.

    They added: “The allusion to driving Northern agenda in 2015 by the Yar’Adua Group was merely designed to whip up sentiments and create a crisis of confidence between some of us and the President.

    “We are not being pressurised, as alleged, by eminent North’s leaders, to group together for any political cause.

    The statement said: “We do not have any agenda outside that of the PDP. We have not held any secret meeting with the former presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), ex-Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on 2015.”

     

  • ACN alleges plot by Kwara to crackdown on members

    ACN alleges plot by Kwara to crackdown on members

    •PDP: defectors ’re not our members

    THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday raised the alarm over what it called an imminent crackdown on its members in Kwara State following the defection of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) into its fold.

    In a statement in Akure, Ondo State by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed concern over the “sabre-rattling and provocative” statements that have been emanating from the PDP government controlled organs in the state before, during and after the defection of their former loyalists to the ACN.

    It has become fashionable for the PDP-controlled government in Kwara State to find in the ACN a ready scape goat for its maladministration, incompetence, profligacy and anti -people policies which have totally alienated the long suffering people from their under performing government, the party explained.

    According to the party, it is no longer a secret that Kwara State government is owing its workers several months of unpaid salaries.However, in its usual penchant for looking for a scape goat for its shortcomings, the state government has perfected plans to arrest and detain ACN chieftains whenever the workers go on strike as if the workers need to be instigated by anyone to demand their legitimate rights.

    To keen watchers of Kwara State politics, this will not come as a surprise as the ACN was also held responsible for the violent protest that greeted the ban of commercial motorcyclists in the state recently, and a strident call was made for the arrest of ACN chieftains when the representatives of the government were booed and pelted with missiles at the Muslim Praying Ground last August, the party added.

    The profligacy, scandalous massive deductions by the government of funds meant for local government councils, incompetence, cronyism and anti -people policies of the government has brought such untold hardship to the people and left the state under developed that the people are left with no choice than to leave the sinking PDP in droves and embrace ACN, the party explained.

    It went on: “For a government that has repeatedly proclaimed to the world that the opposition is dead in the state, the recent massive defection of its former loyalists was bound to jolt and send it to overdrive especially given the quality of the political giants that left to join” the ACN such as:

    “Chief James Ayeni, the first Chairman of Irepodun Local Government and a three-time Commissioner, the most recent tenure being under former governor Bukola Saraki himself.

    “Mr. Jide Usman, an engineer and two term Chairman of Ifelodun Local Government Council, the biggest local government council in the state.

    “Abiodun Dada, a lawyer and former Auditor of the PDP in Ekiti Local Government Area”.

    “Hon Ayo Idowu, a member the Kwara State House of Assmbly (2007-2011).

    “Chief J. S. Adedoyin, a former Director of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and a grassroots politician.

    “Akinmade Yahaya Abolarin, a lawyer and former Legal Adviser of ACPN.

    “Alhaji Issa Raji (alias Kingibe of Kwara State), a former member of Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission.

    “Mr Teju Titiloye, former member, Governing Council College of Education, Kotongora

    “B. A. Atolagbe, a lawyer and former supervisory councillor, Irepodun Local Government council and former member, Kwara State Scholarship Board and Olanrewaju Shuaibu arguably the most redoubtable grassroots politician in Irepodun Local Government Area, the party concluded.

    But the Kwara State chapter of the PDP described the allegation as tissues of lies and propaganda.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Mas’ud Adebimpe, the party said, those the ACN paraded as defectors were never PDP members but impersonators.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, all those claiming to have defected are either members of ACN or ACPN. The only party acceptable to the people in the state is PDP”.

    The Peoples Democratic Party is undoubtedly formidable and on ground in Kwara State, it does not need to force people into its ever increasing fold, Adebimpe said.