The first step aims to entangle the chairman of the forum, Governor Babangida Aliyu of NigerState in a web of controversies that could lead to his removal as chairman of the forum as early as this Thursday in a scheduled meeting of the Northern Governors’ Forum.
Central to the allegations to be raised against Governor Aliyu is his failure to recognize the Governor Jonah Jang-led faction of the forum which last weekend received the enthusiastic backing of the Presidency.
The move being directed against Governor Aliyu it was learnt, is being coordinated by two governors aligned to the presidency from the North.
The move against Governor Aliyu is allegedly also being matched with a local crisis to remove the structures of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the same manner the local structure of the PDP was stripped from the embattled governor of RiversState, Governor Chibuke Amaechi weeks before NGF election.
Gana denies role in fresh plot
The domestic move against Aliyu, it was alleged last night, was being
articulated by Prof. Jerry Gana, a former minister and a member of the
Board of Trustees of the PDP. Gana, sources disclosed, is mobilizing
against the governor using as a reason, the agitation by stakeholders in
the dominant Nupe zone for another shot at the governorship.Prof. Gana, however, rebuffed the claim last night, saying that his ongoing consultations with his people were essentially aimed at articulating their feelings on what and where they should go in 2015 as concerning the governorship.
The speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Adamu Usman told Vanguard on telephone that no agitation against the governor had reached him at press time yesterday. Usman is the sixth speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly.
Aliyu is generally regarded to be one of the governors fully entrenched in the Rotimi Amaechi-led faction of the NGF. His inclination is despite the fact that he had penultimate Friday presented Governor Jang as the consensus candidate of the NSGF hours before the NGF chairmanship election which Amaechi won.
When Jang, with Governor Godswill Akpabio and 16 other governors claimed victory upon an endorsement allegedly given to him, Jang by the NSGF and the PDP Governors Forum, Aliyu declined to support him. Aliyu like some other governors from the North and the South have stuck with Amaechi.
It was learnt, yesterday, that in a bid to break the resistance of the anti-Jang governors and Aliyu’s alleged use of the platform of the NSGF to block the endorsement of Jang, some hawks in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had now decided to move against Aliyu’s continued chairmanship of the NSGF. Aliyu has retained the chairmanship of the NSGF for the six years he has been in power. A bid to transfer the chairmanship to Governor Jang was derailed by some core Northern governors following their anger over the crisis in PlateauState that has pitched Jang’s ethnic Beroms against itinerant and local Fulanis.
Two govs want Aliyu to recognise Jang
Two of the Northern governors who were in the race for the
chairmanship of the NGF, it was learnt yesterday, were driving the
process among Northern Governors to remove Aliyu and would allegedly
only stop if Aliyu recognises Jang’s chairmanship of the NGF.Meanwhile, at home, the governor it was alleged could soon be confronted with an internal rebellion from within his party, following ongoing consultations by Prof. Gana on a successor to Governor Aliyu in 2015.
Associates of Governor Aliyu alleged that one of such meetings held in Bida, on May 11, 2013. It was reportedly held under the cover of a reception for Secretary to the Government of Niger State, Hon Saidu Ndako Idris Kpaki, in KpakiVillage.
Prof. Gana however, rebuffed the insinuations last night and toldVanguard that while he was sensitizing and listening to his people that there was no plan from the Presidency against Governor Aliyu.
“I have every right as a leader to consult with my people and it is very, very important and it is not every consultation that should be seen as a conspiracy.
“Since 1999 when we brought the PDP, our own people in Zone A have always asked us, where do we go, what do we do? I am a democrat, I like to consult with our people to know exactly how they feel. So, it was a consultative meeting, it was not a conspiratory meeting at all!
“There is no design from the Presidency against Governor Babangida at all. Nothing like that whatsoever.
“It is now public knowledge that the governor of Niger is now more comfortable with the opposition and that is not our fault, he has graced a number of their functions which he is entitled to and we didn’t complain and he was celebrated at the ACN convention in Lagos. He went with the party chairman and with quite a number of members and we didn’t complain, so nobody is raising anything against him from the presidency, he is entitled democratically to do whatever he wants to do.
“There is no plan from the presidency to distabilise NigerState at all.”
Gana said his consultation was essentially on how to convince the Nupe people who are based in Zone A on how and where they should move ahead of 2015 given the fact that they constitute the majority of the population of the state.
“I am thoroughly in PDP and we have to have a strategy,” Gana said yesterday
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