Al-Mustapha’s Secret Meetings: We Won’t Lose Sleep – Junaid Mohammed, Others By: Donald Ojogo on August 11, 2013 - 4:45am inShare As apprehension trails the frequent visits of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer to late head of state Gen. Sani Abacha, to some notable Nigerians, some northern leaders have said they will not lose sleep over the matter. They however said that when it becomes glaring that Al-Mustapha is out to serve certain interests to the detriment of the north, especially in 2015, the former CSO will be checked. Since he was freed last month by the Court of Appeal in Lagos over his trial for the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola, Al-Mustapha has been criss-crossing the country and receiving rousing welcome during such trips. There have been speculations that he would take a shot at politics in 2015 or may be used by certain forces to sway the north’s vote in favour of the ruling PDP. He has visited prominent Nigerians even as his triumphal entry into some states in the north, especially Kano and Yobe states, has elicited a curious suspense. In a reaction, the coordinator of the Concerned Northern Professionals, Academics and Leaders of Thought, Dr Junaid Mohammed, dismissed Al-Mustapha’s possible influence in favour of the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. Mohammed said the former CSO is “inconsequential”. “As far as we are concerned in the north, Al-Mustapha is nobody; he is very insignificant to stand on the way of the north’s quest for credible elections that will provide better leverage for the region to constitutionally assume the leadership of the country in 2015. “If he thinks the rousing welcome he had in the north as a result of his release is what will make him provide a breaker for the north, he will be surprised that, at the right time, the euphoria will vanish. This is a young man I know very well; how can he influence the north? How does he want to go about it?” Mohammed said. The spokesman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, said the release of Al-Mustapha has no political implications on the north, stressing that President Jonathan knew nothing about the court’s verdict. He said: “I don’t see any political implications in the release of Major Al-Mustapha precisely because the release was effected by the court. Those who give the credit to President Jonathan are trying to tarnish the image of the president as a man who interferes in the judiciary. “When people talk of breaking the ranks among the northern political leaders, it is because they have forgotten the fact of history that the north has never been one united whole at partisan level as pre-conditions for winning presidential elections.” Another ACF chieftain confided in LEADERSHIP Sunday that the region was watching with interest as Al-Mustapha visits notable Nigerians. Although he declined to give details of the plan, the source hinted that the region will not fold its arms and allow politicians to use Al-Mustapha against its interest in its quest for the 2015 presidency. “We have been watching events since he Al-Mustapha) was released from the prison; the truth is that we in the ACF cannot pretend not to know that there is more to something than meets the eye in the young man’s movements across the nation. One thing we all cannot run away from is the fact that a majority of northerners are happy that Al-Mustapha was released from prison, that he now walks free without being made to face the hangman,” he said. - See more at: leadership.ng/news/110813/al-mustapha-s-secret-meetings-we-won-t-lose-sleep-junaid-mohammed-others#sthash.HShxndkI.dpuf
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 06:21:51 +0000
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