The efforts of the personnel of one of the intelligence agencies in the country may have paid off as the financial assistance sought by a group of northern youths to carry out protests with a view to disrupting the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t materialise, as the nation is set for the event today.
Also, Sunday Vanguard learnt that the clearing of the perimetres of the Eagle Square, venue of the inauguration and its adjourning areas, 48 hours ago, was “with a view to ensuring that no stone was left unturned”.
Facts emerging at the weekend and which we have been able to piece together further suggest that “an earlier request had been made by a youth group in the northern part of the country to a political party for funds.”
“The funds”, according to dependable sources, “were meant to create or facilitate some form of logistical support for the group that had planned to embark on a series of protests purely for the purpose of the inauguration of Sunday (today)”.
The sources said that, at a meeting of some political parties on Monday, May, 16, 2011, the issue was raised and discussed.
Sunday Vanguard has now been made to understand that, that meeting explored different options ranging from the possibility of mass demonstrations in the country on the presidential inauguration day (today), using the subterfuge of ethnicity and religion.
The sources, very conversant with the plan, disclosed that part of the agenda was to create an air of insecurity in the country just so “the emerging President Goodluck Jonathan presidency would be seen as incapable of uniting the country or keeping the peace”.
In addition, on the cards was the option of mass publicity with the possibility of sensitizing some of the foreign dignitaries and heads of state attending the presidential inauguration, “to the claim that the April elections were massively rigged in favour of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and, therefore, rendering the general elections of April not to meet the globally accepted and acceptable standards of being free, fair and credible a nullity”.
Last week, Sunday Vanguard had published that some opposition politicians met in Abuja to explore the possibility of inflicting “maximum publicity damage to today’s inauguration ceremony”.
However, following the searchlight beamed on leaders of the political party, especially with the discovery that a northern youth group had approached it for funding, the leaders of the party panicked and resisted the temptation to fund the mass protest.
“In fact, because of the feeling that they are being monitored, the response the leaders of the party gave to the northern youth group was such that the entire idea fizzled out,” one of security sources said on Friday night.
Continuing, the source made it clear that “all these do not suggest that we would be resting on our oars as the nation’s security and stability is very important. Even, the people we are talking about, on their own- turned down the offer to sponsor any form of protests”.
According to a document, one of the leaders of the party had said: “we have actually been contacted by some northern youths for sponsorship to carry out anti-government protests in parts of the north and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
But we informed the youths that the party has no such money;….the Federal Government is looking for one way or the other to ‘hang’ (us) and because of this, the party has told the youths that it does not want any link whatsoever with them”.
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