by Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo
After several months of attempting to fight the President for the PDP ticket, Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido has finally given his support to the dream of the President. however, he didn’t make the decision on his own. He had to because the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission was on his neck. A close associate of the governor’s told SaharaReporters that Mr. Lamido had to come to terms with the imperative of shelving his ambition for the fear of incurring investigation and possible prosecution by the EFCC. “The executive governor of Jigawa, Alhaji Lamido, knows that they [President Jonathan’s team] were planning to use the EFCC to harass him if he decided to run,” said the source. He added that the governor realized that the machinery of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was totally in the president’s pocket.
“How can you challenge the president when he has all the money, all the party functionaries are loyal to him, and he can use EFCC anyway he wants,” the governor’s associate added.
Lamido was under enormous pressure as EFCC was breathing down his neck and that of his two sons. Infact, indications were that if he had continued to nurse his ambitions, he would have been hunted down by the Anti-graft agency.
Another source said there was no way Lamido could realise his dream despite the support of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The Jigawa governor had chickened out after months of declaring that party members in his state had lost confidence in Mr. Jonathan whom he accused of not fulfilling promises made during the 2011 elections.
Prof Jerry Gana told newsmen that the Jigawa Lord had finally given his endorsement to the President’s ambitions.
“the BoT was so informed today about this and that decision by the governors was fully endorsed in a motion by the BoT on its own. Having received that news, the BoT also unanimously resolved that because of the excellent work which Mr. President has done, because of the mature way he has been leading Nigeria, because of the humble, dedicated and patriotic way he has been handling very sensitive issues, the BoT is delighted, convinced and overwhelmed by the fact that we’ve a very impressive candidate.”
