Posted by From BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
Monday's announcement of Plateau State Governor, Joshua Chibi Dariye's impeachment would have given cause for celebration to nobody better than the Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu, who has been the arch-enemy of the Governor for the last five years.
Monday's announcement of Plateau State Governor, Joshua Chibi Dariye's impeachment would have given cause for celebration to nobody better than the Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu, who has been the arch-enemy of the Governor for the last five years.
The witty Senator, however, decided to shun the press for comments, pretending not to be excited with Dariye's removal.
He said he would prefer to "allow his boys to handle the matter at the local level first" before he would come with his own statement on a larger scale, one of the Deputy Senate President's aides offered, explaining that "in fairness to Oga, he should not be seen to be the first person to speak on the issue."
Political observers in Plateau State, however, have a strong belief that even the removal of the governor would have not been effected and workable if the feud had not escalated to a total do-or-die war between the former bosom friends who started muscle-flexing over control of Plateau Central and the PDP in the state.
Daily Sun sources revealed that trouble started between Mantu and Dariye when the latter indicated interest to run for the Senate after his governorship tenure expired in 2007, and having come from the same Senatorial District, Mantu became threatened, thereby not only distancing himself but waging political crusade against the governor.
It has been on record that since that time, there was no love lost between the two as Mantu was seen to have used the federal might to intimidate the governor through his cohorts and the police in the state while Dariye was suspected to have sponsored several attacks on the entourage of the Deputy Senate President as well as torching his houses, using party stalwarts in Jos who also went as far as calling for his recall through petitions to the National Assembly and the INEC.
While Mantu captured big politicians like David Jonah Jang, John Jatau Kadia, Senator Daushep, Chief Mrs. Pauline Tallen, Governor Dariye was seen to have effectively used the goodwill of former PDP National Chairman Chief Solomon Lar, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande and the majority membership of the state House of Assembly. This resulted in getting the democratic setting and PDP in the state torn into two parts, each claiming to have the bigger followers.