Ciroma, others in fresh plan to stop Jonathan •Ask Atiku to head for court

Posted by admin Latest Politics Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

NORTHERN leaders, under the aegis of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), have mandated former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to commence legal action against President Goodluck Jonathan, who won the January 13 presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP).

Sources told the Nigerian Tribune that the leaders, at a meeting in Abuja, on January 15, ratified the decision of the NPLF to grant Abubakar the go-ahead to sue Jonathan.

It was confirmed that those at the meeting included Alhajis Adamu Ciroma,Tanko Yakassai, Sani Zango Daura, Ahmed Mohammed Gusau, a certain Professor Abubakar, Alhaji MD Yusufu, Bello Kirfi, Isa Salami and Bashir Yusuf.

A source said that the meeting X-rayed the just concluded national convention of the PDP and concluded that the NPLF lost partly because Abubakar did not listen to certain advice and due to the influence of the governors.

It was decided that Abubakar should continue the legal battle to wrest the ticket from Jonathan while the Northern consensus seekers also comb the PDP constitution for further possible areas of litigation.

The meeting, according to sources, put calls through to the four pro-zoning aspirants; Abubakar, General Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State, to thank them for their support for the zoning agenda and seek the way forward.

One of the sources quoted Abubakar as claiming that the fight had just begun to indicate his resolve to battle the convention result at the courts.

The meeting was also said to have regretted allowing Abubakar to participate in the PDP convention when the configuration was clearly against him.

A source said that one of the participants told the gathering that Abubakar had insisted in partaking in the convention.

It was also gathered that the NPLF also resolved to mandate some legal experts to comb the PDP constitution to ascertain if Abubakar could become the direct beneficiary if Jonathan’s victory is nullified.

“We have always believed that the focus of the zoning battle should be the courts and there is no going back now. We have been vindicated,” a source quoted one of the leaders at the meeting as saying.

The meeting ruled out the possibility of Abubakar conceding defeat to President Jonathan, a source further said.

The meeting specifically blamed PDP governors in the North for betraying its cause and determination to produce a presidential candidate from the PDP, it was further learnt.

The group said that the governors rated their personnel interests ahead of what it called Northern interest.

Meanwhile, the defeated presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and two presidential candidates of northern extraction, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on Tuesday, declared that President Goodluck Jonathan was unfit to govern Nigeria again because the ruling PDP had failed the good people of Nigeria.

The trio spoke on the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa Service, monitored in Kaduna. On the programme, Abubakar said that it would be wrong for Nigerians to accept President Jonathan for the 2011 election because he was not prepared for leadership and had no political ideology.

Similarly, Shekarau, the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), lambasted the PDP, saying it was a corrupt party that made history when an Inspector-General of Police appointed by the PDP government forgot about security matters and embezzled billions of naira, arrested and humiliated for corruption that was unprecedented in history.

In his condemnation, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, who is contesting the presidency on the ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), said in spite of the several years that PDP had been in power, there was nothing to show for it and urged Nigerians to look for a change.

-Tribunewp_posts