For over 8 years, the Deputy Governor of Niger state, Alhaji Ahmed Musa Ibeto, was adjudged to be very loyal to his boss – the Chief Servant Muazu Babangida Aliyu. However, the recent PDP governorship primaries in the state put a knife on the cord of the cordiality that ever existed between them, forcing the deputy governor to dump the ruling party for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). The relationship became sourer last week, when the governor walked his deputy out of the state Executive Council meeting on grounds that he called him a thief during an opposition rally and that the decampee deputy would use council deliberations to hunt PDP. In this interview with ADELOJE OJO, Ibeto gave account of what happened and concluded that the actions of his boss were not only undemocratic and unconstitutional but that the governor lacks the powers to forcefully prevent him from attending council meetings. He also gave indications that legal battle may soon begin.
Sir there is a statement from the Niger state government that you have excused yourself from attending the state executive council meeting, what really happened?
If this statement is coming from government, let me react. It is not true that I excused myself but rather let me give you the actual details of what has happened. When I received notification for the council meeting for yesterday (that is February 11, 2014), I went as usual but before the council started the governor in his opening remarks said that people are aware, members of the executive council are aware that I have decamped from the PDP to APC. That we have also gone round the state on campaign tour. Then he said according to his statement that they brought him information and in fact including clips that I called him a thief. That he will not preside over a council where I am sitting, because he does not know if I will not use whatever information I gathered in the council to campaign against them. But I objected to the fact that in the first place. I have never called him a thief and we went round selling the candidates of my party. I am sure the electorate would want to know why I as deputy governor that was voted for under the PDP am now in the APC. So, in that instance I do not even wait for them to ask questions. I tell them saying that I was voted together with the governor under PDP and that I decided to leave the party because of obvious reasons. First, every electorate is aware that I contested for the primaries of the party for the governorship of the state and that considering the injustice and other things that happened including the flaws, we took the matter up to the national headquarters of the party. So I usually tell people that it was because of these injustices against me that I left. Now, I am in APC and I believe that all candidates in this party – right from the Presidential candidate General Buhari to the bottom, of state houses of Assembly – are the candidates that can deliver.
What action did you take after the governor said he would not preside over the meeting while you were seated; is it true that you made moves to pack your belongings from office in government house?
No. What I did was to go to my office. Well, I said ‘sir if you want to take this decision let me excuse you to take the decision.’ Then I left for my office.
From there I now gathered that they were deliberating on the issue and from what I heard – from all indications – he was not going to allow me to attend. So in order to be a law-abiding citizen and in order not to cause confusion, because I also have my supporters there, I decided to look at the security challenges and other things that might happen, if I insisted that I will be there. This is because I learnt that he said that he was going to force me, you know remove me from the council.
I could not insist that I was going to attend, because majority of the council members objected to it, because they said constitutionally, there is reason and he has no power to bar me from attending it could create rancour. In fact, somebody even said the state Attorney-General even cited the Supreme Court judgement of Obasanjo Vs Atiku and advised him, that as far as they are concerned there is nothing within the framework of the law that will bar me from attending the council meeting. But the governor was so mad, so undemocratic to the extent that he even mentioned that he would use the security forces to ensure that I do not attend. So I considered this as undemocratic action and I decided to leave. But as you know, I belong to a political party and we are considering what action to take.
Does it now mean that you will not be in attendance if the council is called next time?
See, as far as I am concerned I will not be in attendance for the fact that you know we are looking at the legal angle ;because if the governor could make this statement, we do not know his next line of action and we in APC are peace loving people. We believe in the rule of law.
As for as we are concerned we are talking to lawyers and the lawyers are giving indications that when the matter gets to the court judgement will be delivered. In any case, if I am forcefully prevented from attending the meeting , of which I am legally a member, then the tendency is that at the end of the day the judgement will be made in such a way that all the deliberations they did in the council will be null and void, because I was barred as member from attending. I do not want to conclude or pre-empt the judgement, but we are trying to know which aspect of the law we will use. And even if it means going to court to get injunctions we will do so.
What are the fortunes of the APC resulting from your defection?
The fortunes of APC have tremendously improved with my decampment to the party. As you can see, we have the largest number of supporters. In fact, in the local governments of the state and wards we visited, people from PDP were willingly decamping to APC.
I can tell you that we have received not less than 10,000 members of PDP into our fold. With the kind of leaders that are coming – both gubernatorial and House of Assembly members, many people and serving PDP members of the state Assembly trooping in – with their supporters to the APC, I can tell you that we have boosted the membership of APC apart from the goodwill that we are receiving from electorate. You can see for yourself that the PDP is a party that has so much record of undemocratic actions in it.
Many people were barred; candidates were imposed, so in such cases when you compare with the candidates of the APC that won primary elections according to the will of the people, the electorate are happy that their votes count in APC. In the PDP, the candidates emerged with the coercion of the leadership of the party or even the governor himself. So the people are really not happy with the candidates that emerged in that party. That is why many are rushing now into the APC. And when you look at the quality of the candidates you will find out that the APC candidates are far ahead.
Since your decamping to APC, is there any time you felt unsafe?
If you look at the situation generally in the country, security is a matter that everybody should be more concerned about. But at the same time I know that some people are not happy with my decampment and with some individuals being unhappy with my activities, I really feel concerned but let me say that as a believer, I truly believe that my life and security are in the hands of God. But I also ensure that those details and other securities attached to me to ensure my safety- are always with me and I am sure that they are doing their job.
What message do you have for the state commissioner of police over this concern?
Well I appeal to him, in the first instance, to ensure that officers and men are not used by politicians for positions. They should ensure that they are men and officers of the Nigeria Police; they are supposed to protect are citizens and give equal treatment to all irrespective of the political party they belong. And before, during and after elections I have been appealing; you could see it from the clips and other recording tools of my campaign; each place I visited, I use to tell the people – especially the youth – not to resort to violence because it does not pay and in any case we being in the majority should not be seen causing confusion in the society.
It is even the people that think that they may not make it that are likely to cause confusion. So if we as the majority party in the state are causing confusion it will not pay. Just look at the scenario, all the incidents that happened in most cases where you heard of violence, our people were the first to be attacked or molested in most instances. You know, people are trying by all means to provoke them. However, despite all the provocations we have been telling them to be calm, not to cause confusion.
Has the shift in the election affected your party’s preparations in Niger state?
Well, I can say yes, because when you plan to do something and then suddenly it is shifted, you have to also re-strategise. But let me say that I look at it as a challenge and also as an advantage. When you look at the campaign train, we were straining ourselves in such a manner that in some instances we campaigned for 24 hours. So, now what we have said is that we are going to re-strategise in such a way that we will not strain ourselves.
The most fascinating aspect of the campaign is that even before now, people used to wait for us up to early hours of the next day.
That shows the commitment of the people that we have but all the same, we are looking at what we will do further to get to the rural areas we had not reached before. The feelers we are getting are very good because we asked the zonal leaders to meet and look at their problems and know how we are going to mitigate them. We are asking people to continue with the house-to-house campaign and the House of Representatives and those of state’s House of Assembly members to continue their campaigns; and they are doing wonderfully well.
As the leader of APC in Niger state, what is your take on the distribution of PVCs in the state by INEC?
We are happy now that many are picking their PVCs. Also let me commend the INEC in Niger state particularly the Resident Commissioner and his men. Initially we had the belief that the government was trying to use some of the officials to mop up these PVCs and when we objected , they listened to us. But in spite of that, we have challenges in one or two, three local governments where we had people collecting the PVCs; when they realised that in certain locality you belong to APC they will tell you that your PVC has not arrived from Minna.
In most cases when the cases were reported to INEC officers, they responded quickly to arrest the situation by ensuring that the cards are given to the owners. We will say that by now substantial number of people that were registered must have collected their PVCs , so we thank INEC for this exercise in the state.