The General Abdulsalami
Abubakar-led National Peace Committee has revealed that former President
Goodluck Jonathan would have arrested, prosecuted and possibly jailed key
members of the then opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.
The committee said Jonathan would
have jailed Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and others for
committing treason against the Nigerian state but decided against it, citing
national interest above any other.
It also revealed that Jonathan
conceded defeat in the 2015 presidential election to the winner and candidate
of APC, Buhari, without its (the committee’s) knowledge.
The revelation was contained in
the report the committee unveiled Tuesday, in Abuja, after a peace meeting it
held with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, heads of security agencies, and representatives of the
country’s 91 political parties.
The report was tagged: “2015
General Elections: The Untold Story”, and published by The Kukah Centre, the
National Peace Committee.
In the report, the committee said
it did not convince Jonathan to concede defeat to Buhari in 2015, contrary to
popular media reports.
The committee said its primary
concern “has always been how to get the defeated candidates to accept the
outcome of the election by conceding promptly and unequivocally so that the
winner would naturally have a much easier task to be magnanimous in victory.
It further disclosed that “the
committee in the evening of March 31 requested audience with President Jonathan
at the Villa.”
The report added, “As it awaited
confirmation for the meeting with the president, the Committee Chairman,
General Abdulsalam Abubakar, GCFR also put a call through to General Buhari who
informed him that President Jonathan had only minutes earlier called to concede
the elections.
“He [Buhari] particularly asked
the Committee to please convey his good wishes to President Jonathan for his
great act of statesmanship.
“Shortly after that, members of
the committee, who were greatly relieved, headed to the Villa where they met
privately with President Jonathan and thanked him for his great courage.
“At this point, members of the
Buhari Campaign team were yet to address the press on the historic development
and as such, many Nigerians got the news of the concession from General
Abubakar’s brief media scrum with State House Correspondents which perhaps
helped create the wrong, but widespread impression that the committee sat with
President Jonathan at the Villa as the results came in and had directly
prevailed on him to concede.”
The report further disclosed how
Jonathan, in a meeting with the committee which had Former Head of State,
General Abdulsalami Abubakar as chairman, religious leaders and media mogul,
Sam Amuka, as members, cited “national interest” as reason he stopped his
earlier decision to press home with treasonable charges against the then APC
presidential candidate, Buhari and other leaders of the party, over threats to
form a parallel government if they didn’t win the election.
According to the 51-page
document, Jonathan jettisoned the plan “in the interest of peace and national
stability.”
Part of page 13 of the report
reads: “A meeting with Jonathan was held at the Aso Rock Villa in the afternoon
of Wednesday, March 25, 2015. At the meeting, he (Jonathan) raised some issues
concerning the state of the nation, the threat of violence by the opposition
(APC then) based on allegations that he (Jonathan) and his party were planning
to rig the elections.
“He (Jonathan) noted that he took
very seriously the threat by leading members of the opposition to form a
parallel government in the event that they didn’t win the elections, but that
he chose not to react to such apparent treasonable acts in the interest of
peace.”
The report also detailed series
of meetings held with leaders of the two major political parties in 2015- APC
and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
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