Insecurity forces Jonathan to cancel Yobe rally

Barring any last minute change in plan, the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential rally earlier fixed for Monday (today) in Damaturu, Yobe State will no longer hold.

President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and other top officials of the PDP were earlier scheduled to take the President’s re-election campaign to Gombe and Damaturu today.

Our correspondent however learnt that a decision to call off the Damaturu rally was taken on Saturday after members of the President’s advance team had already arrived the state capital.

When asked why the rally was put off, the official simply said, “unfavourable security report.”

The top Presidency official told our correspondent that when it became clear that the rally would no longer hold as scheduled, members of the President’s advanced team left Damaturu for Abuja on Sunday.

He said the team had left the town before an explosion was recorded in front of the residence of the PDP candidate for the Potiskum/Nangere Federal Constituency in the state, Sabo Garbu, opposite the Federal Government College in the town.

He said they were still in Damaturu when they heard information that insurgents were again making attempts to overrun Maiduguri, the Bormo State capital.

The source however said the President would still make the Gombe trip except he changed his mind at the last minute.

He could also not say whether the campaign train would still visit Damaturu before the grand finale billed for Abuja on Saturday.

By the PDP timetable, the campaign train is expected to visit Minna and Lokoja on Tuesday; Benin and Asaba on Wednesday; and Yenagoa on Thursday before rounding it off on Saturday in Abuja.

Meanwhile, with the presidential election just some 13 days away, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, on Sunday called on the North and the South-South to strengthen their age-long political alliance by voting overwhelmingly for President Jonathan.

Anenih, in a statement that came less than a week after the one in which he appealed to Nigerians to ensure the unity of the country during and after the election, urged the North to consider the decades of cooperation given by the people of the South-South to candidates of the North and reciprocate the gesture with a renewed mandate for Jonathan.

He said it was the right of the northerners to be aspirating to be the President of the country, but begged them to jettison such ambition by supporting President Jonathan.

The statement partly read, “Last week, I made a passionate appeal to Nigerians on the need for us to ensure, during the forthcoming elections, that the nation remains unified and keeps moving forward in unity.

“With a few days to the 2015 Presidential election, I find it expedient to send this appeal specifically to our brothers and sisters in the northern states.

“The election is the most important as it is the precursor to the elections at the state level, which come up on February 28. For me, however, the critical issue in the February 14 Presidential election is justice.”

“While I do not intend to wish away your legitimate right to be President, I urge you to consider the decades of cooperation given by the people of the South-South to candidates of the North.”

The former Minister of Works said that in all the democratic elections in Nigerian history in which a northerner had contested, he said that statistics showed that the South-South often voted overwhelmingly for such a candidate.