Saharareporters has learned authoritatively that the closest associates of missing and sickly Nigerian ruler, Umaru Yar’adua, have gone on a bribing spree to scuttle moves to remove him from office. In the face of increasing local and international pressure on Yar’adua to handover power to his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, the ailing “president’s” kitchen cabinet has handed Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, the sum of N2 billion and another N4 billion to Senate President David Mark to stop any legislative or judicial initiative to either impeach Yar’adua or compel him to hand over power to Jonathan. Some of the top players in Yar’adua’s unofficial but powerful inne
r cabinet are his wife Turai, former Governor James Onanefe Ibori, special economic aide, Tanimu Yakubu, Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa, and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara. Former President Ibrahim Babangida maintains constant consultation with the group.It is not known how the kitchen cabinet hopes to impose their agenda on restive Nigerians, but Tanimu Yakubu reportedly told Bankole and Mark yesterday that the Yar’adua group was prepared to spend three times what Obasanjo spent on his third term agenda to stop the popular movement for Yar’adua to resign and hand over power to Jonathan.
The group’s selling point against Jonathan is to tell legislators, judges and Nigerian opposition groups that Jonathan is too close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and, as president, would b
e controlled by the hugely despised Obasanjo.In interviews with several lawmakers as well as sources close to the Yar’adua camp, Saharareporters gathered that the huge pay offs to Bankole and Mark were part payment of a N20 billion campaign to stop the judiciary and the legislature from acting against Yar’adua as he struggles against a deteriorating health condition.
