Jonathan
The endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan by Arewa Council of Chiefs in the South West yesterday suffered a setback, as a crack has emerged in the camp of Arewa community with some members dissociating themselves from the endorsement.
Chairman of the Arewa Community, South- West, Hon. Kabiru Abdulahi, in a press briefing in Lagos, argued that the endorsement by the traditional council in Lagos at the weekend was done without the blessing and approval of the Arewa community in the South West of the country.
He said: “The Arewa Community wish to dissociate itself from the endorsement of the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term in office, adding that this has become necessary as a result of the endorsement by the Arewa Council of Chiefs in Lagos and Ogun states.
“The truth of the matter is that the said Arewa Council of Chiefs was cajoled and it was about six members that went to do the endorsement of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The deputy chairman, Arewa Council of Chiefs, Alhaji Hassan Auyo, who is the Seriki Hausawa of Idi- Araba sitting beside me was not there and the council did not sit down to decide on the endorsement of anybody.
“What we want to do is to sit next week Tuesday on an extended session to discuss this matter and decide who to endorse amongst the presidential candidates.
“Before then, we have to make a categorical statement disowning that endorsement of the President Jonathan. Arewa has not endorsed President Jonathan. I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of the sitting but from preliminary discussions it does not look like Arewa Community will endorse President Jonathan. Not at all.
“We normally sit down and carry out our analysis based on performance, based on what we see; we also look at the track records of the candidates before endorsing them.
“We have been working on a report and the report before us does not signify that President Jonathan will be endorsed. I can tell you we may end up endorsing General Muhammadu Buhari because the recommendations favour him and we will come out on Tuesday to do that endorsement for him.”
Also speaking at the press briefing, Alhaji Ahmed Dakata said: “ In as much as everyone has right to associate with any political party, we believe the council of Arewa Chiefs as a traditional institution should not be seen to be directly involved in partisan politics.
“Rather they are royal fathers whose subjects are those who are supposed to be full time politicians who can belong to any political party of their choices. Therefore we want to state categorically that the traditional chiefs did not speak for us.”
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