Governor Bindow Jibrilla of Adamawa state has said he remains loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari even as he raised concern over an alleged plot by some unnamed politicians who lost out in the APC primaries to blackmail him by pitching him against the presidency.
Speaking through the state Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Ahmad Sajoh, the governor said the ‘disgruntled politicians’ planned to print campaign posters of him and that of Atiku Abubakar, the recently elected presidential candidate of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Sajoh said that the posters would be pasted in Yola and Abuja.
Mahmoud Ahmed, a relative of the president’s wife, Aisha Buhari, and a former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, were some of the politicians defeated in the North-east state’s APC primaries.
It is not clear if the governor was referring to either of these.
Both have condemned the exercise and called for its cancellation.
In separate media briefings Saturday in Yola, the state capital, Ribadu and Ahmed alleged that the process was hijacked across the state by corrupt state officials.
The two are contesting for the APC ticket along with the incumbent governor.
They said party members who thronged polling centres were stranded throughout Friday as no officials turned up to conduct the election.
Ribadu said the hijack of the process was a confirmation of “worst fears” over the neutrality of party officials in the state.
Ahmed also called for sanction on the party officials who allegedly masterminded the hijack, which he said was done to create confusion in the party.
The two aspirants called on the national leadership of the party to cancel the purported primaries, and dissolve party leadership at the local level to give way for a fair contest.
The president’s wife a few days later also condemned the state-wide primaries of the ruling party saying it was sad that the anomalies witnessed in many states happened under a ‘comrade’ leader, in a veiled reference to Adams Oshiomhole, the APC chairman.
Oshiomhole was a former labour leader before he was elected Edo state governor.
Buhari has been known in the past to criticise the government headed by her husband.
But the governor in his statement on Tuesday said he remains a loyal supporter of Mr Buhari despite the upheavals that has hit his state.
“We have credible information that the posters would be pasted in Yola and Abuja as a means not only to blackmail the governor but to create a rift between him and the president.
“Let me reiterate for the avoidance of doubt that Governor Bindow has no intention to leave APC or work for anyone outside APC or support anybody that is not the candidate put forward by APC.
We are APC government and we remain loyal to the party at all levels and the president who is the leader of the party and the most credible candidate we can market,” Sajoh said.
