As the Peoples Democratic Party gets set for its
gubernatorial primaries on Monday, President Goodluck Jonathan and the son of
the former military head of state, Mohammed Abacha met behind closed doors at
the Presidential Villa on Friday, apparently to strategise on how to secure
victory for him and the party.The PDP is presenting the junior Abacha, who was
freed from corruption and theft charges by the Federal Government last June, as
its governorship candidate for Kano, apparently based on his assumed influence
and popularity to be able to dislodge the All Progressives Congress candidate
backed by Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.Goodluck Jonathan and Mohammed
Abacha.Although the details of their discussions were not made public, Abacha
told State House correspondents shortly after emerging from the pareley with
Jonathan that he was confident the PDP would ‘recover Kano’ from the
APC.According to him, Kano was stolen from PDP and the party is on its way to
recovering the stolen ticket.Abacha was also optimistic he would emerge the
party’s gubernatorial flag bearer.He said: “We are hopeful; I wouldn’t want to
say too much. I said it before that it was a PDP state; it was a PDP ticket. It
was taken or converted or even stolen; whatever you want to call it, so be it.
The chances of the PDP are still bright.Speculations had been rife in the
country that the Presidency deliberately withdrew the charges bordering on the
alleged stealing of N446 billion preferred against the aspirant last June in
order to pave the way for him to contest the Kano governorship election.The
government through the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke,
had justified the nolle proseque granted Abacha, claiming that it was done in
the overall interest of the country and not for pecuniary or political
reasons.The government had preferred the nine-count charge of stealing against
him in February 2014, claiming that the amount was stolen from its coffers
between 1995 and 1998.But during its withdrawal of the case against Abacha, the
government urged the court to strike out the case since it had since discovered
“fresh facts” on the matter.Nigerian lawyer rose against the administration
over the matter but it refused to budge
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Politics