A fresh cold war has erupted between the Plateau State governor, Joshua Dariye and the Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu, with the governor accusing Mantu of being behind a plot to burn down some strategic public buildings in Jos.
Mantu described the accusation as “a cheap blackmail.”
In a strongly worded press statement at the weekend titled “Dariye is at it again,” Senator Mantu distanced himself from the document allegedly linked to him, saying that it was cooked up by the cronies of the governor,” and described it as “mischief.”
At the centre of the fresh controversy is a letter purportedly addressed to the Deputy Senate President by one Barrister Solomon Dalung, requesting for an additional N11.5 million to carry out “the remaining responsibilities” after an initial N2.8 million had been exhausted.
The Plateau State governor said in a statement signed by the permanent secretary, Press and Public Affairs, that it had intercepted the letter written on the letter head paper of the “Plateau Peace Movement for the Sustenance of Democracy” dated November 26, 2004. It detailed the activities of the movement after the state of emergency had been lifted.
Titled “Proposal for the Actualisation of the Respo-nsibility and Situation Rep-ort on Meetings conducted so far,” the letter listed the remaining responsibilities to include the burning down of the headquarters of the Plateau Agriculture Develo-pment Board, Primary Education Board, Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTVC), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Jos and the eight-storey Joseph Go-mwalk House, headquarters of the Nigeria Standard new-spaper which also houses several other companies and organisations.
The letter further alleged that the group will mobilise for protests against govern-ment polices for which N4.8 would be utilised while the balance of N6.7 million would be used for the purchase of vehicles.
The Plateau state police commissioner, Joseph Apapa, confirmed questioning 20 persons including the lawyer fingered as the author of the letter. They were released after interrogation.
In a swift reaction, Mantu said in the statement by his chief press secretary, Sylvanus Namang, that the letter was cooked up by Dariye’s government and is calculated to destroy and pull him down as well as “garnering sym-pathy and fanning the embers of religious and personal hatred.”
According to Mantu, the letter which insinuated that the N2.8 million sent by him through two aides for the purpose of coordinating an attack on the governor “were clearly forged” including the signature of Barrister Dalung and his letter head papers.
Mantu who dissociated himself from the letter described as inciting by the state government, said, “it is a clear mischief and diversion from real issues. These premeditated and refractive designs are merely aimed at garnering sympathy and fanning the embers of religion and personal hatred.”
He reiterated his good int-entions for Plateau State, saying he could not be a party to the destruction of public buildings even as he is “not given to dastardly acts.”
Senator Mantu also took a swipe at some journalists in Jos who he alleged killed the story of the attack on the governor’s convoy at Kurgwi last week during his tour of the worst hit Southern Sena-torial zone after his reins-tatement.
Mantu alleged that the correspondents who accom-panied Dariye on the tour “had their palms oiled to kill the story. In a panicky move, a plum sum was said to have been released to them inst-antly at the Government Lodge, Tudun Wada.”
Mantu continued with the allegation that “the 34 correspondents that cover the state were later moved to Government House, Rayfield and were given N100,000 each in addition to placing them on N50,000 monthly allowances, with a promise to review the amount upward if only they cooperate.”
According to Mantu’s allegation, the money given to the correspondents was not only meant to kill the story of the attack on the go-vernor at Kurgwi last week, but also with the additional brief not to report anything positive on the Deputy Sen-ate President citing his paper which he presented at the recent Middle Belt stakeholders retreat in Jos which he said was not reported by the Jos correspondents.
The correspondents chapel of the NUJ in Jos took serious exception to Mantu’s allegations and gave him seven days to retract them and apologise to them “or face the consequences of his actions.”
Explaining that the mee-ting with Governor Dariye had earlier been scheueld as part of his consultations with stakeholders in the state and “not for any reason of finan-cial gratification.”
With regards to the alleg-ation of killing the story of the attack on the governor at Kurgwi, the union explained that only few correspo-ndents were on the gove-rnor’s trip on that occasion.
“Even when we got wind of what happened at Kurgwi the next day, we learnt it had to do with religion. Having been accused of applying religious sentiments to issue, we felt that as part of our social responsibility as journalists we had to down play the issue.
Barrister Dalung, fingered as the author of the inciting letter, disowned it saying it was a calculated attempt to discredit him and the group.
Kevin Gabyong also indicted in the letter said it was fake, pointing out that their group has no plans to destabilise the state.
Former Minister of State, Science and Technology, Mrs Pauline Tallen, also mentioned in the letter could not be reached for comments.
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