The former governor of Plateau State, Senator Jonah David Jang, yesterday dismissed the allegation by former governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, that Northern governors agreed not to support the second term bid of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 election.
Jang said on Friday that he had no reason to be part of the gang up against Jonathan as alleged by Aliyu.
Mr. Clinton Garuba, Media consultant to Jang said in a statement in Jos, the Plateau State capital, that Jang was “not part of that meeting.”
Garuba said: “For the avoidance of doubt, despite the perceived shortcomings of President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Jonah believed that president Jonathan was better equipped to rule Nigeria at the time, especially when his opponent was General Buhari who Jang did not hide his conviction concerning Buhari’s inabilities to resolve the nation’s challenges and sensitivities of the issues at the moment.”
Continuing, he said: “Unfortunately, Buhari won and we are all witnesses to the tales of woe.
“We view the statement of Dr. Aliyu as an attempt to drag the hard earned reputation of Jang into disrepute, having served Nigeria as a military officer, later as a civilian governor and senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and discharged his responsibilities without blemish.
“Senator Jang is not one who speaks from both sides of his mouth. Rather, he speaks and supports only what he believes. Little wonder that Plateau State was won by President Jonathan in the 2015 general elections, largely due to the hard work of the then governor.
“For emphasis sake, there was no basis for Dr. Jang not to have supported Dr. Jonathan, especially when the contest was against President Buhari.”
Babangida Aliyu had said that Northern governors rose against former Jonathan’s second term bid in 2015 because of the perceived threat of his victory to the north.
Aliyu said in Minna that the Northern governors felt, at the time, that their part of the country stood in a disadvantaged position and would be shortchanged if Jonathan won reelection.
He claimed that Jonathan had earlier reached an agreement with the north to complete what was left of the tenure of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and then run for only one term.
He said the ex-president’s insistence on going for another term in 2015 was against the agreement he had with the northern Governors.