Jonathan meets Atiku, IBB, Gusau over April polls

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.