2011: Jonathan, Atiku clash over ‘strange’ document
THE political temperature in the Peoples Democratic Party , once again, rose dangerously Friday as the camps of the two leading presidential aspirants on the platform of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar clashed over the status of a ‘strange’ document.
The camp of the president fired the first salvo when it raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation to blackmail President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.
In a statement signed Mike Omeri, Director Planning, Research and Strategy of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation alleged that a malicious document purportedly authored by our campaign organisation is to be circulated to media houses, online media and foreign embassies by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation with the intention to blackmail the person of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.
This document is the latest desperate act to place obstacles on the path of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in order to stop him from contesting the PDP primaries.
Having realised that their initial plan to incite Nigerians to violence has failed and their sponsored surrogates in the law courts with frivolous law suits against Mr President are not making any headway, they have resorted to this latest gambit, among others, to give a lifeline to their desperate campaign.
But the media aide to Atiku Abubakar, Garba Shehu, shot back and confirmed the existence of the document in their possession. He said on Friday that the Atiku Campaign Organisation owed it a duty to let the public know what the president’s camp was allegedly up to.
He alleged that the president’s camp was planning to subvert Nigeria’s young democracy.
However, a highly placed source in the Goodluck/Sambo Organisation Friday condemned the resort to what he described as a ‘dangerous game plan’ by the Atiku Campaign Organisation.
He described the said document as a ‘doctored’ or ‘badly cloned’ version of the organisation’s strategy plan "with terrible and malicious inputs by the Atiku camp to serve a dangerous game plan of blackmailing the Presiden".
He went further to ask series of questions and urged Nigerians, the international community and electronic media or internet-based media outfits to disregard the claims.
The run-up to the PDP presidential primaries in January 2011 has been rather acrimonious between the two camps in recent times.
First, was the allegation by the Atiku camp that certain individuals had perfected plans to circulate damaging and incriminating documents bordering on alleged indictment for fraud and corrupt enrichment.
Then came the utterances made by Atiku at a forum that those who made peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. The president’s camp descended heavily on the Turaki Adamawa.
In fact, the blistering counter attack was led by the president himself when he warned that such unguided statements amounted to treason and that nobody should say he was being persecuted politically if the security agencies should visit him.
Not satisfied, the Goodluck/Sambo organisation officially reacted to Atiku’s statement by calling on Nigerians to resist those who may seek to disturb the peace of the country.
However, at a recent forum, Atuku clarified his statement, saying he was merely quoting a popular philosopher.
THE political temperature in the Peoples Democratic Party , once again, rose dangerously Friday as the camps of the two leading presidential aspirants on the platform of the party, President Goodluck Jonathan and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar clashed over the status of a ‘strange’ document.
The camp of the president fired the first salvo when it raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation to blackmail President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.
In a statement signed Mike Omeri, Director Planning, Research and Strategy of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation alleged that a malicious document purportedly authored by our campaign organisation is to be circulated to media houses, online media and foreign embassies by the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation with the intention to blackmail the person of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation.
This document is the latest desperate act to place obstacles on the path of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in order to stop him from contesting the PDP primaries.
Having realised that their initial plan to incite Nigerians to violence has failed and their sponsored surrogates in the law courts with frivolous law suits against Mr President are not making any headway, they have resorted to this latest gambit, among others, to give a lifeline to their desperate campaign.
But the media aide to Atiku Abubakar, Garba Shehu, shot back and confirmed the existence of the document in their possession. He said on Friday that the Atiku Campaign Organisation owed it a duty to let the public know what the president’s camp was allegedly up to.
He alleged that the president’s camp was planning to subvert Nigeria’s young democracy.
However, a highly placed source in the Goodluck/Sambo Organisation Friday condemned the resort to what he described as a ‘dangerous game plan’ by the Atiku Campaign Organisation.
He described the said document as a ‘doctored’ or ‘badly cloned’ version of the organisation’s strategy plan "with terrible and malicious inputs by the Atiku camp to serve a dangerous game plan of blackmailing the Presiden".
He went further to ask series of questions and urged Nigerians, the international community and electronic media or internet-based media outfits to disregard the claims.
The run-up to the PDP presidential primaries in January 2011 has been rather acrimonious between the two camps in recent times.
First, was the allegation by the Atiku camp that certain individuals had perfected plans to circulate damaging and incriminating documents bordering on alleged indictment for fraud and corrupt enrichment.
Then came the utterances made by Atiku at a forum that those who made peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. The president’s camp descended heavily on the Turaki Adamawa.
In fact, the blistering counter attack was led by the president himself when he warned that such unguided statements amounted to treason and that nobody should say he was being persecuted politically if the security agencies should visit him.
Not satisfied, the Goodluck/Sambo organisation officially reacted to Atiku’s statement by calling on Nigerians to resist those who may seek to disturb the peace of the country.
However, at a recent forum, Atuku clarified his statement, saying he was merely quoting a popular philosopher.
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