Source: THISDAY LIVE
President Muhammadu Buhari has stepped
up efforts to find a lasting solution to the renewed militancy in the
Niger Delta by holding a private meeting with former President Goodluck
Jonathan on Thursday night at his residence in Aso Rock, Abuja.
As a follow up to the meeting with
Jonathan, Buhari also met with former president Olusegun Obasanjo
yesterday at the Presidential Villa.
The meeting with Obasanjo came on the heels of fresh attack on Forcados pipeline by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).
The destruction of oil facilities in the
region by the militants had crippled Nigeria’s crude oil production and
power supply, with crude production recovering from a loss of 1.1
million barrels per day to about 1.6 million barrels per day. By
yesterday, power generation had dropped to 2,832.5MW.
A source very close to Jonathan said the
former president’s meeting with Buhari lasted about 35 minutes and
focused mainly on how to get the Niger Delta militants to agree to a
ceasefire.
THISDAY checks reveal Buhari specifically requested Jonathan to intervene in the crisis.
Obasanjo arrived Aso Rock Villa yesterday in company of Otunba Johnson Fasawe at about 1pm.
His meeting with Buhari was held behind closed doors and the details were not made available to the media.
When Obasanjo emerged from Buhari’s office, he declined comments.
It was also confirmed that Jonathan’s
return to the country from self-exile in Cote D’Ivoire and the
subsequent meeting with Buhari on Thursday
was triggered by an earlier story exclusviely reported by THISDAY
newspaper indicating that the former president had gone on self-exile
for fear of being arrested.
According to multiple sources, following
THISDAY’s report on Jonathan’s self-exile, Buhari was said to have
telephoned him and after several back channel diplomacy between
Jonathan, himself and Cote D’Ivoire president, Alhassan Quatarra,
assurances were given that Jonathan was free to return home and help the
quest for solution to the Niger Delta crisis.
According to the source, Buhari and
Jonathan discussed the speculations about possible EFCC arrest and
Buhari was said to have assured Jonathan that if the EFCC finds anything
against him, he would be given the opportunity befitting of a former
president to respond and make clarification. This assurance gave
Jonathan the comfort and confidence to return home. Buhari’s Democracy
Day praises heaped on Jonathan were designed as a confidence building to
further assure him that he was free to return home and that the
government was not going to arrest him,” added another source.
These intrigues are a further
confirmation of THISDAY’s report that Jonathan had indeed gone on
self-exile to avoid humiliation of arrest.
No comments:
Post a Comment