Posted by By STEVE NWOSU on
Just as Vice President Atiku Abubakar was beginning to enjoy the breather afforded him by the Lagos High Court ruling which Tuesday cleared him from the alleged indictment by the EFCC and the Bayo Ojo administrative panel over the PTDF saga, war has opened on another frontier for the embattled Atiku.
Just as Vice President Atiku Abubakar was beginning to enjoy the breather afforded him by the Lagos High Court ruling which Tuesday cleared him from the alleged indictment by the EFCC and the Bayo Ojo administrative panel over the PTDF saga, war has opened on another frontier for the embattled Atiku.
The latest war is coming from someone who had hitherto been regarded as a friend of the vice president's, Gombe state governor, Danjuma Goje.
The erstwhile acolyte of the VP has petitioned President Olusegun Obasanjo accusing Atiku of subterfuge and plotting to destabilise the peace in the state.
In what appears a backstab of his old friend, Goje is, therefore, appealing to Obasanjo to use all the security apparatus at his disposal to deal with this threat of the VP and some of his acolytes in Gombe, including former governor, Abubakar Hashidu and Dr. Suleiman Kumo, an ANPP chieftain who co-ordinates the Buhari Campaign Organisation in Gombe.
In a letter dated November 20, 2006 and titled ‘Unfolding Plot to Destabilise the Peace in Gombe State', Governor Goje who described Atiku and the lot as ‘disgruntled politicians' also pointed accusing fingers at Col. Musa Mohammed, a former Minister and now governorship aspirant on the platform of the Action Congress (AC), Alhaji Ibrahim Y. Abdullahi, another former minister whom he identified as the chairman and arrow head of the group and Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim Hassan, another AC aspirant.
The letter read in part: 'I write to bring to your notice an unfolding plot master-minded by the Vice President, Alh. Atiku Abubakar and some disgruntled politicians to destabilise the peace in Gombe State.
'It could be recalled that this group of disgruntled politicians paid the Vice President a solidarity visit in Abuja under the auspices of Action Congress (AC) where they reached an agreement to form a coalition against the government and PDP supporters in Gombe State under the guidance and financial support of the Vice President."
Goje wrote that soon after the meeting, Atiku went on air to make a statement to the effect of this plot and that the group returned to Gombe to meet on Sunday, November 19, 2006 to perfect the plot to make the state ungovernable for the incumbent administration.
'They have vowed to heat up the polity to the extent that nobody would enjoy peace until the presidential bid of the vice president is realised", Goje wrote, in the letter to the president.
The governor alleged that one of the agreements reached at the meeting was to write series of letters and petitions making 'unsubstantiated inflammatory allegations" against the governor for circulation to the president, the security agencies, the press and the general public - a situation he wanted to use the medium of the letter to bring to Obasanjo's notice.
It would be recalled that until the feud between President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku assumed the present frightening proportion, Goje was regarded as one of the governors with sympathy for Atiku. However, with the battle line now drawn between the president and his second-in-command, and with loyalists of the latter increasing running into presidency-engineered rough times, the Gombe State governor has gradually parted ways with the Atiku camp, carefully wriggling himself out and warming his way into the heart of President Obasanjo.
The November 20th memo, therefore, appears to be designed to further demonstrate his loyalty to Obasanjo. It concluded: 'Please accept, Mr. President, the reassurances of my tenacious loyalty and dedication to the service of our dear nation".
Contacted on the issue, Atiku's spokesperson, Malam Shehu Garba, said that they had heard of the existence of such a memo but that he was yet to obtain a copy. He, however acknowledged that he was aware that, at some point, there existed a coalition in Gombe that was determined to vote Goje out of office come next April's gubernatorial election. He said it might be in desperation to get Obasanjo help him fight his opponents that Goje is doing everything possible to rope it around the Vice President so that the president would have reason to move in and stop the coalition.