A group, Taraba Mandate Group has said that it is aware that the Minister of Women Affairs and the APC candidate in the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Taraba state, Aisha Alhassan, has set up a lobbyist group with the mandate to reach out to prominent elites of the North in the traditional sector, military and intellectual leaders to ensure that she becomes the Governor.
In a statement signed by its PRO, Gani Bako, the group however, described the plan to steal the mandate given to Governor Darius Ishaku and his deputy Haruna Manu, as “dead-on-arrival plan.”
According to Bako, “The job is to try and either convince the headship of the judiciary to skew the up-coming judgement or get the presidency to thwart the wishes of a majority of voters in Taraba state.
“So far the lobby group has met one disappointment of one form after the other. In fact, in one of their stop-overs, a prominent Emir famous for his radicalism and forthrightness, told the group off and sternly admonished them to go look for good lawyers instead of behaving as if Nigeria hasn’t moved on from the past when decision of this nature could be influenced from the top.
“He lectured them on the futility of such lobbying; noting that it was a waste of money and time, since the judiciary under the current administration is even against conflicting verdicts. A dogged Aisha has however continued her lobbying. At each stop, her group or even herself would regale the Emirs with the usual lies that she actually won the election. She would then latch into the old sentiment of faith and gender saying she is being persecuted also because she is Fulani.
“The truth is that Aisha is not even Fulani. She is Jibu- a small minority tribal group scattered randomly in the central and Southern part of Taraba. There is no point saying this but since she is making an issue out of it, let’s make the whole world know that Governor Darius’s deputy, Eng. Haruna Muna, is a full blooded Fulani.
“Aisha has almost effectively hoodwinked many of the northern elites with her falsehoods, lies and voodoo ideas. The good news is that many of them, especially the Emirs, unanimously saw through her ploy and continue to tell her to go and look for good lawyers if she felt she has a good case.”
