Factional Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, has alleged that the dishonesty and deceit of Kano state Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was directly linked to the present division amongst the governors, and not the Presidency.
Reacting to the allegation by the Kwankwaso that the federal government gave N2 billion bribe each to 16 governors who supported Jang during the NGF election to divide the forum, Jang in a statement by his NGF media officer, Kassim Yakubu, said “if anybody received any bribe it must be Gov. Kwankwaso, as he was the one who nominated Jang for the Chairmanship of the forum when the Northern Governors met to agree on a consensus candidate.
Jang declared that this act of ‘dishonesty’, aided by a few other governors, sowed the seed of discord amongst the governors and that Kwankwaso and his group were now finding it difficult to live with the consequences.
“The opposition governors’ forum is getting desperate as they see their numbers dropping daily and think they can deceive Nigerians with baseless allegations,” he said.
“Gov. Kwankwaso should tell Nigerians if I gave him money to nominate me. That grand deceit of nominating me and doing something else is the foundation of the division. He should tell Nigerians how and when the N2 billion was paid.
“When he proudly made it public that he was being smart by nominating me and leading others to vote against me, what was he expecting? That deceit and dishonesty was the beginning of playing politics with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and now he is not happy with what he created. He can always come back to the forum of the chairman he nominated, he added.
He however called on Nigerians to always test the veracity of statements “designed to mislead and incite the public, as Nigeria is bigger than a group of individuals who are seeking relevance and have resulted to bend the facts and playing politics with all issues regardless of the long term effects on the nation”.
