Plot to remove Jonathan: Former-US Intelligence Chief exposes meeting with Northern Governors; cites failure of same sex marriage bill.

 Retired US intelligence analyst, who was part of the Barrack Obama administration, Mr. Matthew T. Page, says the claim made by former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, that US State Department invited 12 northern governors to Washington to seek their support on the need to remove ex-President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 Presidential election was correct

Ex- President Jonathan, who lost the election to President Muhammadu Buhari, had alleged there was international conspiracy led by the Obama administration in the build up to the elections.

The statements of both Aliyu and Jonathan were revealed in a new book, entitled ‘Against Run of Play’ by Segun Adeniyi.

But giving details of the meeting in an interview with Reno Omoikri, Jonathan’s former aide, Page, said the northern governors came to the meeting with a prepared speech that read like a petition against the ex-President.

 His revelation, contained in Reno’s new book, ‘Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies’ billed to be released in June 2017, gave insights of the US meeting which started at the State Department but ended in the White House.

Page, was the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Africa with the US National Intelligence Council and U.S. State Department’s top intelligence analyst on Nigeria before he resigned in 2016.

He told Omokri that he was present at the meetings with the northern governors.

Cases against Jonathan In the book, Page alleged that

Page said, “At that meeting, Admiral Murtala Nyako read out a memo he had written itemizing the case against Jonathan.

“He was so openly and almost violently against the Jonathan administration in his speech that he had to be openly rebuked at the meeting by the then Nigerian ambassador to the US, Ambassador Adebowale Adefuye, of blessed memory.

“Admiral Nyako’s belligerence against the Jonathan administration was so venomous that it prompted a rebuttal from the Gombe State governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who showed loyalty to the then Nigerian President.

“This prompted most of the other Northern governors present to turn on him” Page said.

Commenting on if the Obama’s administration was against Jonathan’s second term bid, Page said, “My objective opinion is that it was not as if the administration was against Jonathan. There were a number of issues.

“The Obama administration was a bit disappointed (I know that sounds paternalistic) but there were some issues they had felt let down on.

“The human rights situation in the Northeast, which has still not changed under Buhari, and Diezani Alison-Madueke who they felt should have been removed.

“There were some issues with some clauses in the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013”.

 “Another interesting connection” according to Omoikri, “is that these high level meetings arranged for Northern governors by the Obama administration took place in 2014, at the same time that Obama confidant and former White House Senior Advisor, David Axelrod’s firm, AKPD Message and Media, began to work as a paid consultant for the then Nigerian opposition party, All Progressives Congress”.

 The book also claimed that “sublimal messages were communicated by President Obama” in the special broadcast he made to Nigerians on March 28, 2015, urging them come out and vote.

Contacted, Ikechukwu Eze, said he was yet to read Mr. Omokri’s account but added that he was relying on the statement of his boss in reaction to Adeniyi’s book that it was distorted and a true account of what transpired could only come from the key actors in the election.

“At the right time, those people, including former President Jonathan, will present the complete picture,” he said.

END