2015: Lamido/Amaechi posters flood Abuja

Alhaji Sule Lamido and his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi

PRESIDENTIAL campaign posters featuring Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, and his Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, surfaced in the Federal Capital Territory on Wednesday thus signalling an interesting twist to the 2015 elections.

The coloured posters, versions of which had been reportedly sighted earlier in Kaduna and Niger states, bear portraits of Lamido and Amaechi in a joint ticket campaign posture.

By the way, the two governors had at various times denied nursing such ambitions.

Our correspondents sighted a number of these posters along major highways especially in satellite towns and on flyovers in parts of the Federal Capital Territory.

Some of the posters, seen pasted along the Abuja-Gwarimpa-Kubwa Expressway, had the inscription “2015: Vote for Lamido/Amaechi ticket.”

The Peoples Democratic Party had on Monday suspended Amaechi, citing anti-party activities. The suspension came barely two days after Amaechi won a re-election as Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, a post which the party had warned him not to contest.

He won against Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, said to be a favourite of the Presidency and leaders of the PDP.

Amaechi had described the suspension by the PDP National Working Committee as a political witch-hunt which he said showed the “desperation of Abuja people.”

He said the PDP gave him no fair hearing and that his suspension by the party was politically-motivated.

The Rivers governor on Tuesday asked the people of his state to pray for him, saying his life was in danger.

He had said, “The way these people at the federal level are desperate, they may come after my life; so when you pray, remember to pray for me to remain alive. Now, you see political witch-hunt. It is so ridiculous; my party must rise above political witch-hunt,” the governor said during an interactive session with the youths of the state.

The outcome of the NGF election has been mired in controversy with both Amaechi and Governor of Plateau State Jonah Jang, claiming victory.

Already, one of the governors from the northern part of the country, who spoke in confidence to some journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, said he and his colleagues were not moved with threats to either suspend or expel them from the party.

He said it would be wrong for the leadership of the party to claim ignorance of the law as stipulated in the PDP constitution concerning the party’s NEC.

The governor said he and his colleagues knew that one of the problems Amaechi had with the party was his presiding over PDP governors’ meetings, where the state chief executives demanded the convening of the NEC meeting.

PUNCH