Media reports before the Nigeria Presidential election petition tribunal verdict which upheld the election of Mr. Umar Yar'Adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President and Vice President respectively, had it correctly that there was enormous pressure on the only female member of the tribunal, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji who initially had a dissenting opinion, making the score three to two in favour of the petitioners, to cross over to the other side. What the media could not report was that the pressure did not make the desired impact, instead, lobbyists from the petitioners penetrated the rank of the tribunal members and was almost snatching one member, who with the chairman was on the side of upholding the election from the onset, when the Niger Delta trump card was played.
We can now report that four days to the date of the ruling, seeing that that the pressure on one of the dissenting members was not yielding the desired result, Secretary to the Federal Government, Mr. Babagana Kingibe who was monitoring the close door meetings of the tribunal members through sophisticated security survillance equipments usually installed in the alternate locations of these meetings in advance by the state security service(sss), summoned his think tank for a way out.
The think tank, according to a highly placed Presidency source came up with the Niger Delta scare option and agreed that Vice President Jonathan was better placed to co-ordinate the scheme,being an Ijaw from Niger Delta.The scheme was sold to the President who gleefully accepted it, Dr. Jonathan was briefed same day and had no problems accepting it.
The Vice President, the source further narrated called a few prominent Ijaw leaders to intimate them of the scheme and to invite them to Abuja to deliever it.
On sunday 24th February 2008 at about 11.15pm, a senior operative in the office of the National security Adviser, summoned members of the tribunal to a secret meeting in a guest house at gwarimpa estate in Abuja, in attendance were five prominent Ijaw leaders and two members of Ijaw Youths Council(names withheld).Reasons for the absence of the Vice President at the meeting have not been ascertained so far. What we know was that at the prompting of the senior operative,the Ijaw leaders wasted no time in telling the tribunal members that the Ijaw nation will not accept the removal of the Vice President from power by whatever means and that if that happen, the whole country will be thrown into serious economic problems since according to them,there will be no crude oil export from Niger Delta.
The meeting we gathered ended with assurance from the tribunal members that the issue of national security will be a paramount factor in the verdict to be delievered.
