Goodluck Jonathan Cancels Adamawa PDP Rally

President Goodluck Jonathan's visit to Adamawa State for the Peoples Democratic Party’s Unity Rally scheduled for next week Tuesday has been shelved owing to what sources within the party described as the “mood of the country.”

The lingering abduction saga in Borno State in which over 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped by suspected members of the terrorists Boko Haram sect was said to have greatly influenced the decision to shelve the Adamawa PDP Unity Rally.

14 of the students were able to escape when one of the trucks in which they were being carted away broke down; while 16 others had earlier escaped during the night of the attack in the school. 13 others have also regained their freedom.

Calls made last night to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, and two presidetial aides – Rueben Abati and Doyin Okupe – to get official statement on the aborted Unity Rally were not fruitful. Sources said Metuh had travelled out of the country due to the postponement of the rally.

“The President does not want to be seen acting as insensitive to the plight of the Chibok schoolgirls. We can’t afford a repeat of what happened in Kano after the Abuja blast. That was why the trip was shelved,” the source said.

However, another source in Adamawa State said the rally was shelved because the party did not want “some disgruntled elements to use the President's visit to launch a terrorist attack aimed at dragging the name of the president into the mud and justifying Governor Murtala Nyako's earlier attacks on the President.”