By Henry Umoru
ABUJA- FACTIONAL Chairman of Nigeria Govenors’ Forum, NGF and governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang yesterday exonerated President Goodluck Jonathan from the lingering political crisis rocking the governors’ forum which created a sharp division among the Governors, alleging that the deceit and dishonesty of Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso were directly linked to the present division amongst the Governors.
In a statement yesterday, Governor Jang who was reacting to the allegation by the Kano state governor that the Federal Government gave N2billion bribe each to some governors to divide the Nigeria Governors Forum, Jang stressed that if there was anyone who received any bribe to cause rift among the governors, it must be Governor Kwankwaso, adding, ” as he was the one who nominated Jang for the Chairmanship of the NGF when the Northern Governors met to agree on a consensus candidate.”
In a statement released in Abuja by the NGF media office and signed by Kassim Yakubu, governor Jang declared “that this act of dishonesty aided by a few other governors sowed the seed of discord amongst the governors and that Kwankwaso and his group are now finding it difficult to live with the consequences of their action and have resulted to throwing spurious and unsubstantiated allegations out there believing that Nigerians do not have any memory of the events leading to the division of the forum.
“The opposition governors’ forum is getting desperate as they see their numbers dropping daily and think they can deceive Nigerians with baseless allegations. Gov. kwankwaso should tell Nigerians if I gave him money to nominate me. That grand deceit of nominating me and doing something else is the foundation of the division. He should tell Nigerians how and when the N2 billion was paid.
“When he proudly made it public that he was being smart by nominating me and leading others to vote against me, what was he expecting? That deceit and dishonesty was the beginning of playing politics with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and now he is not happy with what he created. He can always come back to the forum of the chairman he nominated.” Jang added.
The Plateau Stat governor howeve urged Nigerians to always test the veracity of statements designed to mislead and incite the public as Nigeria was “bigger than a group of individuals who in seeking relevance have resulted to bending the facts and playing politics with all issues regardless of the long term effects on the nation.”
Vanguard