From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
A group, Northern Youth Leaders Forum (NYLF), has disclosed that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has nothing to do with the travails of the former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, in the hand of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Rather, the wife of the former president has been a victim of “grand political scheming” by some ministers who served under her husband.
The group, which equally disclosed that the former ministers have been the brain behind the arrest and arraignment of the former FCT Minister, Senator Bala Muhammed and his son, Shamsideen, by the anti graft agency, noted the ex ministers have able and and willing collaborators within the presidency.
The national president of the Forum, Elliot Afiyo, who spoke on behalf of the group, gave this disclosure on Sunday in an interview with our correspondent, after the group’s meeting with some youth groups in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Afiyo, who said NYFL was in the state to sensitize youth groups on the 2019 presidential election, said the former ministers who are also executive members of the Former Ministers Forum, decided to punish the former FCT minister for his loyalty to former President Jonathan.
Apart from that, Afiyo added, the GEJ’s ministers, who are of Fulani descent, never forgave Bala Muhammed, a minority from Bauchi State, for calling for the invocation of ‘doctrine of necessity’ as a senator, during the late President Yar’dua’s health brouhaha, which paved way for the emergence of Jonathan as the acting president and later president.
He, however, said Patience Jonathan was never the target of the group within the Former Ministers Forum, but GEJ himself, with a view to whittle down his influence as a former president, particularly within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) towards 2019 presidential election.
The group, therefore, threatened to reveal to the public, the identities of the former ministers and their collaborators in the presidency, if they failed to desist from their acts.
“I have it on good authority that the travails of Patience Jonathan and that of Bala Muhammed and his son, in the hand of the EFCC, has nothing to do with the APC, but the handwork of some ministers who served under President Jonathan, and perceived the former FCT Minister as too powerful and close to Jonathan.
“Remember, it was Senator Bala Muhammed who called for the invocation of doctrine of necessity during the issue of former President Umar Yar’adua’s health issue, which led to the emergence of Jonathan as president then. This call was viewed as an effrontery by the Fulani power block within the PDP and since then, Senator Muhammed had been their target.
“What is more worrisome is the situation whereby the former FCT Minister’s son who never held any public office, was even arrested for corruption. All these are a scheme to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it”. NYFL president stated.
He, therefore, urged the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu not to allow any group or individual, to use the anti graft agency for political vendetta, adding due process must be followed in the prosecution of corruption cases.
Meanwhile, the group, called on the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to continue to dialogue with any aggrieved section in the country, rather than using military to quash agitation.