Members of the southern Arewa community in southern Nigeria are in a
fighting mood, alleging that former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa and an
aide to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta ran off with some of the
funds President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly gave to them last week to
secure their endorsement.
Some figures within the community insist that Mr. Bafarawa, who is
the chairman of the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in
Southern Nigeria, must return the cash he reportedly skimmed off from
millions of naira that Mr. Jonathan had given to them during the
president’s two-day visit to Delta State last week.
Disaffected members of the group told a correspondent of
SaharaReporters that Mr. Jonathan had used the occasion of his visit to
Delta to distribute cash to the Arewa community in southern Nigeria as
well as members of other ethnic groups in the state.
A prominent member of the Arewa community told SaharaReporters that
Mr. Bafarawa duped them by running off with a substantial part of the
dollar funds from the president.
According to the source, the funds from the president were meant to
win the votes of northern residents of Delta State. “The entire members
of the Arewa community in the southern Nigeria are supposed to come out
and endorse Mr. President which we did after receiving the money,” said
the source.
He added: “But surprisingly, Mr. President gave each Arewa
community from southern Nigeria N10 million through the chairman of the
Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in Southern Nigeria, Alhaji
Attahiru Bafarawa. The money was given in dollars but instead of
releasing the full money the way it was given, Bafarawa cut away N4
million and gave out only N6 million to each of the Arewa community
across the 17 states of southern Nigeria.”
Another furious member said he expected Mr. Bafarawa to deny
pilfering their funds. “If he denies taking our money, can he also deny
that money was given to the Arewa community by President Goodluck
Jonathan when he visited Asaba, the Delta state capital on Friday,
February 27th 2015 and that the president and his vice were endorsed on
Saturday, February, 28th at the Cenotaph, Asaba, Delta State capital?”
He added: “We are using this opportunity to tell Bafarawa to bring
for us our balance of N4 million he took from the N10 million given us
by Mr. President.”
Members of the Arewa community were bused into Asaba from across 17 states in order to endorse Mr. Jonathan.
In a related development, members of the Arewa community in Delta
State accused Auwalu Tukur, a special assistant to Governor Emmanuel
Uduaghan on non-indigenes, of pocketing N12 million allegedly given to
the group by the state governor to win their endorsement of President
Jonathan’s re-election bid.
Last year, members of the Arewa community in Delta State had urged
Mr. Uduaghan to fire Mr. Tukur whom they accused of corrupt practices,
greed and self-centeredness.
An aggrieved member of the Arewa community claimed that Mr. Tukur
always sought to grab anything meant for the larger group, adding that
he hardly ever gives anything to the Arewa community.
“We are warning Alhaji Tukur to bring the N12million Governor
Uduaghan gave us through him to support President Jonathan. Shortly
after the event that day, some of our Muslim brothers from Warri
attacked Tukur to get the N12 million, but he was rescued by one of the
police area commanders at the cenotaph,” the source asserted.
Mr. Tukur did not answer calls to his mobile line. When a
correspondent sent him a text message, he responded, “Please they should
leave me alone. Are they not tired of spreading lies? What we did is
our [belief] in PDP and the leadership of our great country Nigeria
headed by President Goodluck Jonathan.”
