President Muhammadu Buhari may be plotting a dangerous game of taking over governments in three key Niger Delta states of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa, it has been revealed.
The objective, sources said, is to muzzle huge financial resources required in rebuilding the Northern zones ravaged by insurgency and the attendant need to rehabilitate the people in the affected areas.
It is also an exigent step, it was learnt that, in the aftermath of failure by the United States, Britain and other European countries to redeem their respective pledges to release funds to support rebuilding of the ravaged northern states whose economy has collapsed following the devastating activities of the insurgent group, Boko Haram.
Accordingly, President Buhari is said to be seeking alternative sources of funding for the rehabilitation efforts and taking over the three states in the Niger Delta became appealing in what sources said would be “strategic” in terms of the oil wealth and “unfolding tendencies” to have them in the grip of the Federal Government.
A close source confided that the plot to take over the three states was thought to be the most viable option open to the north in rebuilding its ruined economy.
The thinking, it was gathered, was to seize power from the PDP-controlled states in the South-South with the convincing understanding that the combined wealth of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa states will create the desired cash flow in the four years of the Buhari administration to be used to rebuild the terribly battered economy of the north.
The three states are currently under tension occasioned by election disputes.
Both Rivers and Akwa Ibom have already had their respective elections nullified in significant manner as fresh elections will be conducted partially or in whole to determine the status of government in the two states while that of Delta is held in abeyance.
Sources reliably informed that plans had been perfected to also rig the elections in Bayelsa State in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with firm commitments allegedly extracted from the governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, to surrender forty per cent of its monthly Federal allocations within the fixed limit of financial mopping.
“This explains why the Presidency is hell bent on fielding Timipre Sylva for the governorship election despite his standing trial for corruption at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the various extra-judicial killings charges against him as sued by the affected people in the state”, a leader of an Ijaw rights group said.
A source also hinted that the choice of Sylva was appealing to the powers that be given his contributions in attempts to perpetuate the late President Musa Yar’Adua in office even when it was obvious he was bed ridden in Saudi Arabia.
The source claimed that Sylva actually donated billions of naira to efforts contrived by some power mongers then to stop former President Goodluck Jonathan from being sworn in as president.
In the case of Rivers, the source further informed, that the plot was to sack the troubled governor Nyesom Wike and install his opponent in the last election, Dakuku Peterside, through what was said to be the ‘instrumentality of the court”.
Already, the court had ruled that the last election in Rivers State was invalid and a new election would be conducted.
