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Jonathan meets Atiku, IBB, Gusau over April polls
Saturday, 19 March 2011 00:00 Suleiman M. Bisalla
Weekly
Trust
In his bid to seal a deal with the Adamu Ciroma-led Northern
Leaders Political Forum (NLPF) towards the April 9 presidential
election, President Goodluck Jonathan last night met with the
trio of former president, Ibrahim Babangida, former vice
president, Atiku Abubakar and former National Security Adviser
Gen. Aliyu Gusau. The meeting which started some minutes after
8pm at Defence House in Abuja was the second in the last one
month and was said to have been at the instance of the
President. A few top political associates of President Jonathan
as well as some allies of IBB, Atiku and Gusau, were also at the
meeting.
The meeting was ongoing at press time yesterday, but a source
told Weekly Trust that the politicians met to discuss the
outcome of the report of the seven-man committee that was set
during the previous meeting between President Jonathan and the
group, which took place at Ciroma’s residence February.
Prominent among issues to be looked at by the seven-man
committee included the matter of the presidency in 2015.
President Jonathan was said to have made a commitment during the
February 18 meeting to the effect that he would serve only one
term, but the NLPF reportedly asked for a strict commitment to
zone the presidency to the north in 2015. They were also said to
have insisted that the commitment be made public, a suggestion
which the presidency rejected, saying it was likely to anger the
South-East and make the president lose Igbo votes in the April
polls.
Yesterday’s meeting was almost scuttled following the gale of
arrests of members of the NLPF by the SSS last week and some
sources alleged that it was masterminded by fifth columnists who
will not be comfortable with the rapprochement between the
president and the group’s members.
A source at the NLPF secretariat said that some members of the
G20 including its Chairman, Prof. Jerry Gana have been
identified as the arrowheads who “stampeded” the arrest of the
NPLF Scribe and a secretariat staff. One member of the group
told Weekly Trust that the members had since discovered that
neither President Jonathan nor any members of his family were in
any way remotely connected to the gale of arrests. According
him, “President Jonathan was actually astonished and lost for
words when confronted with the facts.”
The source said the SSS were actually misled by the fifth
columnists with the intent to torpedo the talks with the Ciroma
group which Jonathan considers desirable in his bid to win the
presidency.
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