2019: Ango Abdullahi speaks on plot to remove Buhari, install Osinbajo as President
Chairman of
the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has denied being involved
in the reported plot to remove President Muhammadu Buhari from office and install
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as President.
Reports
emerged that while President Buhari was away in London on sick leave, some
Northern politicians had started jostling for the position of the Vice
President.
A group
known as the Kaduna Mafia was said to have concluded plans to remove Buhari and
make Osinbajo President while Abdullahi was one of those said to be interested
in the position.
But reacting
in an interview with Vanguard, Abdullahi said, “The Kaduna Mafia has always
been the imagination of the people in a way.
“Recently,
my name appeared as a member of the Kaduna Mafia who wanted to do something
that I was not even aware of.
“The story
was that I was one of the northern elite, who discussed how the President
should be removed from office and his vice (Osinbajo) installed as President
after naming a particular northerner as a vice for Osinbajo, something that I
was not a party to or was not even aware of.
“The rumour
then was that all other members of the group had agreed to the proposal to
remove Buhari and install Osinbajo with a northern vice president except me.
“But the
President must have been made to know who these people are but certainly I was
not part of the group and I don’t know who they are and what they were planning
to do when the President first took ill and was out of the country for a long
time.
“In fact,
Buhari himself talked about the incident the other day, saying that some people
wished him dead and had already started lobbying for the post of vice
president.
“Again, Osinbajo
confirmed it but stopped at mentioning the name of those involved.
“The way my
name came into the story is that they approached Osinbajo and asked whether he
would agree to persuade Buhari to resign on account of ill health and for him
to take over from Buhari if we in the North would nominate a vice for him.
“Of course,
Osinbajo said ‘No, not at all.’ So, in the speculation they did there, they
also said that when they brought the idea to me, I was the only one in the
clique. They said that my name was number 7 in the group.
“This was
all speculation of what ‘the Kaduna Mafia did’ and my name was bandied about as
a member of the group.”
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