Former Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani Yarima yesterday told Daily Trust he led a team of Muslim clerics to a meeting with President Jonathan two weeks ago so that they would pray for peace in the country, and not to further any political goal.
Yarima was said to have shepherded many prominent Muslim clerics from around the country to meet with the president penultimate Friday in order to further Jonathan’s yet-to-be declared second-term ambition and to also try to supplant Vice President Namadi Sambo on the presidential ballot in 2015.
The meeting, held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, had in attendance a representative of Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, Sheikh Yusuf Sambo Rigachukun, Prof Tijjani Al-Miskin and Zamfara deputy governor Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad, who was commissioner in Yarima’s cabinet when he was governor.
Sources had told Daily Trust that Yarima had sold the idea that he was the only one who could rally round Muslim clerics to support Jonathan’s candidature given his well-known Sharia credentials. Yarima, now a senator, was the first governor to introduce Sharia before several other states in the North followed suit in 2000-2003.
Our correspondent gathered that the Muslim clerics who attended the meeting with Jonathan under the aegis of the National Ulama Consultative Forum were from different parts of the country.
But Yarima, a frontline promoter of the opposition’s All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday said the meeting was not political and he had no plans to be vice president in Jonathan’s government.
He said the meeting was convened on invitation by President Jonathan so that the clerics would pray for an end to the insecurity that has bedeviled parts of the North.
“This is just a baseless rumour,” he told Daily Trust by telephone, referring to the allegations that he wanted to be vice president.
“I have said it time without number that I will never decamp to PDP no matter what. I will never leave my party, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) but because of the fact that we are merging together, I’m now in APC.
“With this my stand you will see that the rumour is baseless. Or have you ever seen where an opposition member becomes a vice president to a ruling party? This is not possible anywhere in the world.”
He said their visit to the Presidency had nothing do with politics but that it was purely on the security challenges affecting the country.
“When the president was Vice President to late Yar’Adua I led clerics to the villa under the umbrella of National Ulama Consultative Forum which I formed when I was governor of Zamfara State with the twin aims of promoting unity among
Muslims and championing the cause of Islam in the country. President Jonathan called me recently that he wants me to lead the same group of clerics to him so that they can pray for the country and that was what happened.
“During the visit, the clerics offered prayers for the restoration of peace in all parts of the country. They also asked the president to look into some issues including the restoration of GSM services in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states and find a lasting solution to insecurity challenges facing us. The president was very happy and he pledged to look into it. This was weeks ago and now he has ordered the restoration of GSM services,” he added.
Zamfara deputy governor Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad, who also attended, told Daily Trust yesterday their meeting with the president had nothing to do with alleged the moves to dislodge Vice President Sambo.
Speaking through his press secretary, Yusuf Idris, the deputy governor said the meeting was purely on religion affairs.
“His Excellency my boss led the clerics to the Presidency under Ulama Consultative Forum and there was nothing political as people are speculating. At the meeting, the clerics urged the President to intensify efforts at addressing the insecurity in the country and the President assured them of his commitment to it,” he said.
When contacted, Sheikh Yusuf Sambo Rigachukun declined comment and referred our correspondent to Senator Yarima. “Please keep me out of this. I’m a cleric and not a politician, go and meet Yarima on this please,” he told our correspondent by telephone.
Another cleric who attended the meeting also told our correspondent that the meeting was not political.
“Yes we went to the President few weeks ago but it has nothing to do with politics. The president is for all of us and there is nothing bad for us to visit him,” he said, asking not to be named.
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