Presidency uncovers PDP Governors who are working for APC.
Trust nobody is the name of the game. With the storm over the shift of
polls yet to settle, the Presidency has run into a fix over what to do
with Four of its governors who are said to be secretly working for the
success of the leading opposition, the APC, in the coming Presidential
Elections.
The Presidency became convinced that the Four Governors were not
sincerely working for President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP after
reviewing their activities in relations to the presidential campaigns in
their respective states.
A secret investigation carried out by security agents and placed at the
disposal of the Presidency has clearly indicated that PDP would lose
election in the affected states because of the activities of the
governors...
A competent source told Vanguard in Abuja that both Jonathan and his
party were upset that the governors were hiding under the party to work
for the APC, thereby making it difficult for them to be promptly dealt
with in line with the constitution of the party.
The source said that although the action of the Four Governors drawn
from the North West and North East of the country had been discussed
extensively by the Presidency and the PDP, the party and the president
were in a fix on what to do with ‘traitors’ because of the impending
elections.
The President is said to be particularly irked by the action of one of
the PDP governors from the North East, who did not only give the sum of
N25million in support of the opposition candidate campaign but also
directed his officials to give maximum logistics support to the Buhari
Campaign team during their campaign in the state on February 3 this
year.
The same governor, it was learnt, showed what a presidency source
described as a ‘lukewarm disposition’ to the Jonathan’s Campaign team by
not mobilising enough support for the presidential rally in his state
and arriving late to the venue of the campaign.
The governor is said to have unwittingly exposed disloyalty to the
President and his party by coming to the venue of the rally six minutes
before the arrival of the presidential team, thereby leaving several
things undone and ending up embarrassing Jonathan and PDP when they went
to campaign in the state.
The governor is reported to have delayed the inauguration of the
Presidential Campaign Team in the state until the eve of the
presidential visit thereby making the team headed by a former Senator
from the state, to hit the rocks in his effort to ensure a successful
rally in the agricultural state. As a result of the sympathy of a North
East governor for the APC, he is said to have displayed a lackadaisical
attitude towards the visit of Jonathan to his state last month.
During the visit, the president was said to have been miffed by the near
empty stadium that he noticed upon his arrival for the campaign in the
state that is close to a desert.
The Presidency, Saturday Vanguard also learnt, was also hurt that none
of the governors had shown remorse over their ‘betrayal’ by not speaking
out against some of the wrongs openly committed by their agents against
the presidential campaign teams in their respective states.
It was gathered that the Presidency was seriously disappointed that none
of the affected governors had openly condemned the stoning of its
presidential campaign train in their states while some of them turned
round to blame some senior officers of the Presidency for the attacks.
The APC, which is aware of the tacit support of the governors, almost
went to make a formal announcement that they were set to defect but they
were said to have persuaded the party not to do so, promising instead
to quietly work and deliver their states to the opposition because of
Buhari’s factor.
Asked what the Presidency would be doing to sanction the Four Governors,
the source hinted that the there was confusion in Aso Rock on what to
do to them given the need for Jonathan to put his house in order and
pursue the elections as a united party.
The source said that it would be counter-productive for the Presidency
and the PDP to take any disciplinary action against the governors at
this stage since the elections were already around the corner.
In fact, the PDP is now looking for ways to pressurize Prof Attahiru
Jega of INEC to jettison the use of the Card Readers and Permanent Voter
Cards, PVCs, which could checkmate rigging.
