Why Ayo Fayose Scares APC Chieftains To Their Marrows

Contrary to the ‘bold face’ being put up currently by the chieftains and members of the All Progressives Alliance in public, against the antics of the governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayo Fayose, during the on-going campaigns, insiders in the party have revealed that they are indeed scared to the bones against Fayose’s determined efforts to dent their presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, because of what they have come to learn about his mission.

Very competent sources have intimated Publiknotiz that APC bosses are aware of where Governor Fayose is coming from and are, therefore, aware that anybody who dismisses or takes his actions with levity would only be doing that at his ultimate peril. According to the sources, Fayose is feared to be serving other higher interests which have greater reasons to want to undo Buhari and scuttle his political ambition, and that President Jonathan is only a consequential beneficiary of such actions.

Our correspondent was informed that Ayo Fayose has for many years in the past been associated with the national intelligence agencies through his long association with retired General Aliyu Muhammed Gusau, generally regarded in Nigeria and abroad, as Nigeria’s intelligence czar. “From the days when he was nobody, Ayo Fayose has been associated with Gusau who, built him up and brought him into relevance and politics”, the source told our man in Abuja.

Consequently, it was learnt that it was under the instrumentality of that connection that Fayose was sponsored and installed as the PDP governor of Ekiti State, succeeding Niyi Adebayo, in 2003 and had a most turbulent tenure leading to his impeachment and removal from office on October 16, 2006. Even though he was not able to complete his term, many observers believe that he used that period to ride into the hearts and psyche of the ordinary people of his state, making his return as the governor of the state, during a rescheduled election on October 16, 2014, an easy task for the 54 year old mercurial politician.

Our correspondent was informed that even though Fayose was never favoured by President Obasanjo during his first governorship, he nevertheless remained very close to the Aliyu Mohammed camp, which means that he was also tied to the political apron strings of President Ibrahim Babangida, who has remained a political Siamese twin to Aliyu Gusau. They are said to have kept most of their allies close to themselves and their politics.

It is a fact known to the intelligence circles that the current National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, a prince of the Sokoto Caliphate, who had served as the Aide de Camp (ADC) to President Babangida and a brother-in- law to Aliyu Mohammed, was ‘donated’ to President Goodluck Jonathan by the duo of Babangida and Gusau. It was believed that Dasuki consequently inherited Fayose as a man who can be trusted to do the type of dismantling job that he is currently doing against the APC and its chances at the presidential election.

Knowledgeable political observers are aware that Babangida would go to every legal and political length to ensure that Muhammadu Buhari does not smell the presidential position in the country because of what is seen as an unforgiveable enmity between the two men, starting from the time Buhari was overthrown by IBB in August 1985 and jailed for 20 months. The bitterness in Buhari who is reputed for his unforgiving spirit was such that after his release from prison, he was said to have summarily divorced his wife of many years for alleged contacts with IBB whom she was said to have contacted for some undisclosed favours, which some observers claim, might have revolved around the plea for her husband’s release.

Babangida’s close associates have also told this correspondent that their principal has not been unaware of Buhari’s animosity towards him and that it would be suicidal for IBB to fold his hands and watch Buhari emerge as a president in 2015, with an unfettered authority over him. It is for that purpose, according to the source, that IBB has not only endorsed President Jonathan’s re-election efforts but has also been working underground and using everything at his disposal and reach to ensure that Buhari does not make it.

Ayo Fayose is being seen as one of those arrows in IBB’s quiver against Buhari, and APC chieftains who are aware of this reality are said to be scared about what Fayose can do with his executive immunity and how far he can go.

One of the areas of APC’s fears, according to our sources, is that the national intelligence which has all the records of Buhari’s movements, including his health condition, might have made available a copious amount of information on the APC candidate’s rumoured fragile health state and how much of it that Fayose who is regarded as a loose cannon can use, at a time which his party finds opportune, to APC’s chagrin.

APC chieftains, according to our information, are mindful of the fact that national intelligence bears the medical costs of former heads of state and even of other former governors and other connected members of the society. For instance, before the PDP primaries in 2006, elements in the national intelligence were said to have leaked the health condition of the former Katsina State governor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who President Obasanjo was intending to foist on his party and the country. The national intelligence agencies had been involved in the initial hospitalization of Yar’Adua in Wiesbaden, Germany and subsequently of his protracted treatment for kidney ailments abroad and in Nigeria.

“Even for reasons of national security alone, the national intelligence is aware of the health condition and management of most important citizens of this country and Buhari cannot be an exception”, the source told Publiknotiz.

APC leaders, it has been revealed, are afraid that Fayose might be equipped with a bag of information, the size and makeup of which are not fully known, and are said to have advised themselves to treat him with caution, even as they frantically scratch their heads on how to proceed with their presidential election which is believed to be currently suffering a severe setback. (Culled from: Publiknotiz).