Jonathan votes N2.9bn to ‘capture’ South-West

In a bid to boost the profile of his party and subsequently get substantial votes in the presidential election in the South-West, President Goodluck Jonathan has earmarked N2.9billion as part of strategies to regain control of the zone. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) late last year lost the zone to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which today controls three states to PDP’s two. The labour party controls one.

Empowered Newswire, an online news agency reports that the take-over bid, code-named “South-West Project” for which the first instalment of N500m has been released, has a coordinating team led by Ogun State Governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

To cripple the ACN in the South-West, Jonathan has been advised by the “Southwest Project” team to order the arrest and prosecution of former Lagos State governor and party leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on trumped-up charges. The “Southwest Project” also includes the removal of Justice Ayo Isa Salami, President of the Federal Court of Appeal, before the April polls to prevent him from presiding over the constitution of election tribunals.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, is said to have been appointed to head “a sub-committee to get rid of Justice Salami”

The State Security Service (SSS), it was learnt, has been co-opted. Last week, the SSS wrote to MTN requesting what it called “Call Detail Record” of two numbers: 08034004887 and 08033120001, one of which The Compass newspaper said last week is owned by Salami. 

Members of the committee in charge of the “Southwest Project,” it was gathered, include Chief Kenny Martins, the former coordinator of the Police Equipment Foundation; former Lagos State Deputy Governor Femi Pedro, Senator Iyiola Omisore, one of Jonathan’s Senior Special Assistants, and a flamboyant owner of a broadcast medium.

Reliable sources at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, told Empowered Newswire that, at a meeting last week at the Villa, it was decided that Osun and Ekiti States’ PDP leaders should petition the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the President on the appeal cases, which were resolved by the Appeal Court in favour of the ACN candidates, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and Mr. Rauf Aregbesola respectively last October and December.

Before the petitions were written, state security officials had reportedly been mandated to obtain phone records of Justice Salami and the lawyers involved in the cases. The details were included in the petitions submitted by the Osun and Ekiti States’ PDP leaders last week.

Sources further told Empowered Newswire that Senator Iyiola Omisore who is said to be supportive of the plan got the acting chairman of the Osun State PDP, Mr. Sunday Ojo-Williams, to send a petition to the NJC. While Ojo-Williams sent his own petition to the NJC, Oni sent his to the President.

Sources said that Governor Daniel, Oni and Omisore are the ring leaders of the team that convinced Jonathan on the need to cripple the ACN so that votes from the South West can “counterbalance” the bloc votes that either the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari or the ACN candidate, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, might get from the North-West 

In line with the task to ensure that Justice Salami leaves the Appeal Court before April, members of the “Southwest Project” Team in Lagos have recruited a man who is popularly called “Bishop” to set-up a non-governmental organization (NGO). The NGO is expected to begin a “civil society-driven campaign” to force Justice Salami to resign his job based on the allegations levelled against him by Osun and Ekiti PDP. The Bishop, it was learnt, is to be paid N25 million, as first instalment, to set-up the NGO in Lagos.

A source at the Villa said one of the consultants to the team raised the poser as to what should be the appropriate response to some of the issues that will be raised by the “politically-savvy people of the South-West” on the allegations of “compromise” against Justice Salami when it is compared with the “buried case” of Justice Thomas Naron, the Chairman of the first Osun State Elections Petitions Tribunal.

The News Magazine had accused Naron of exchanging text messages with one of PDP’s lawyers, Mr Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN) and thus compromising himself in the process.

The “Southwest project” team also decided that friendly Newspapers in the Southwest should be cultivated for favourable stories and governor Daniel was saddled with this responsibility.

Part of the plan is to ensure that while Salami is “kicked out of office,” Justice Katsina-Alu, who is “trusted,” should be made to stay in office beyond his date of retirement, which going by the date of birth on his payroll record is May 28, 2011. The idea is to ensure that he surprises the “process of consolidating PDP victory at their polls. 

When the controversy of Justice Katsina-Alu’s exit date became public knowledge last week, the Supreme Court rose in his defence, saying that he was now born on August 28, 1931 and so would retire on August 31, this year when he turns 70. This is to ensure that he “supervises” the process of “consolidating PDP’s victory at the polls” between now and the few months after the April elections. 

It was further learnt that as the battle for April elections rages, Jonathan has been convinced by the Southwest project team that he has to adopt “do-or-die” method of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, given the formidable opposition he faces all over the country, particularly in the North and Southwest.

Convinced that this move is important, Jonathan, it was learnt, has ordered “a massive influx of money, men and materials into the Southwest.” The President, sources close to his campaign said, intends to relocate to Lagos to “direct affairs and take charge” as we move close to the elections. 

It is not clear if the MTN has obliged the SSS with the information it requested for in its letter of last week.

Sources said the SSS, among others, requested for current GPS coordinates of subscribers, the CDPS of the respective GSM numbers and names and addresses registered with the respective numbers.

The information to be provided by MTN, sources said, must include physical addresses of BTS locations (calling number and called numbers), names as well as addresses of pre-and post-paid lines recorded in the system, with effect from November 10, last year.