REVEALED: PDP governors bought guns for thugs —Atiku

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on Saturday said he cautioned some Peoples Democratic Party governors against arming the youth for the purpose of winning elections.

Atiku while speaking in an interview on the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation monitored in Kaduna on Saturday said his advice was not heeded.

He also said he would

not leave the ruling PDP despite the unfair treatment meted to him.

Atiku said he would rather remain in the party and fight the injustice being perpetrated by the leadership of the party.

He said the series of restrictions imposed on him by the party was because the party chieftains were afraid of him and his opposition to illegalities in the party.

When asked whether he would contest for the presidency in 2015, Atiku replied that 2015 was too far for him to decide.

Speaking on how he cautioned some state governors against buying arms and ammunition for the youth, Atiku said, “During our time when there was such crisis in Yobe, you saw how we tackled it. First of all, we sent undercover agents who mixed up with the insurgents and understood their modus operandi. When the report was brought to us, we then sent security agents who rounded up the enclave, arrested some of them and killed those that had to be killed.

“When we formed the PDP and candidates emerged, the governors  earmarked huge amounts of money to buy arms for youth groups so as to use them in winning thte election.

“I met and told them that if they used them and after winning the election, they fail to provide them with jobs, they will rise against the people in their states. These are the youths who later turned into the Niger Delta militants you’ve been hearing about. Also, a similar thing happened in the North, I met a governor and told him that these youths you assembled and called ECOMOG will become dangerous later and that was what eventually happened. I spoke to all these governors, I alerted all of them.”

He, added that the proposed amnesty for Boko Haram was a good initiative, adding that, “Ours is just to advise the government. But there is no advice that the elders have not given the government. Look at the Lemu Committee report, the government did nothing about it.”

Culled - Punch

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