Department of State Security Services (DSS) yesterday quizzed former Adamawa State Governor Jibrilla Bindow for convening a meeting against President Muhammadu Buhari.
The agency also grilled five others namely: former Speaker of Adamawa House of AssemAdministrator bly Kabiru Mijinyawa; the acting APC Chairman, Yola South, Alhaji Sulaiman Adamu; former Sole of Yola West Development Area Abubakar Umar Sirimbai; a former Commissioner Mustapha Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha; and a former adviser in the Bindow administration, Alhaji Yusha’u Adamu.
The ex-governor, who admitted that he was invited and interrogated by the DSS, said he “cautioned members making those unwarranted utterances thrice” at the meeting.
But the invitation has generated political tension in Adamawa following the leakage of an audio tape of the meeting.
It was learnt that Bindow was grilled at about 2.50pm yesterday on alleged plot against the President on account of an audiotape in circulation.
The ex-governor last week convened a meeting on the way forward for the APC in Yola South in Adamawa Central Senatorial District as part of his preparations for another governorship bid in 2023.
It was gathered that the meeting had hardly started when some of those invited started pouring invectives on President Buhari.”
The outbursts against the President became intense. One of them at the session secretly recorded the discussion.
The audiotape was leaked.
A security source said: “There was intelligence report on alleged conspiracy against the President at a meeting in Yola and the DSS decided to invite the former governor ,who convened the meeting, along with some of those present.
“The audiotape of the session was made available to those invited and they explained the roles they played.
“A death wish against the President of a country cannot be taken for granted. Those behind it could escalate their motive beyond merely mouthing it.”
The former governor said he was not part of any plot against the President because he is like a father to him.
He admitted that although there were outbursts against the President at the meeting, he cautioned them.
He said he even threatened to leave the meeting when he could not bear the outbursts.
He said the audiotape in circulation on the meeting was doctored by some mischief-makers.
In a statement by his Special adviser on Media, Sadiq Abdullateef shortly after the session with the DSS, Bindow said: “Former Adamawa State Governor, Senator Muhammad Umar Jibrilla Bindow was invited to a party meeting because some members of the party were aggrieved about the just-concluded primaries, which he attended as an elder of the party.
“It’s worthy of note that, there was no programme in the said meeting, he went there and sat and listened to the aggrieved members’ complaints, and there was an unwarranted outburst from some members which he cautioned. It’s sad that some people are using that outburst with a recording to malign the former governor.
“The said recording was doctored and if you listened to it very well, there are some conversations that were skipped, Senator Bindow cautioned the members making those unwarranted utterances thrice in the meeting and even threatened to walk out.
His words were, “please, this is not right, you don’t wish anybody death because of political reasons, talk less of our leader and father, the president. Let’s make progress please, or I am leaving”.
“But, because it’s a planned recording to malign and create problems where there is none, his utterances condemning what has been said weren’t even in the circulated recording.
“As far as we are concerned, we were invited to a meeting and things were said in public and Senator Bindow cautioned the people making those utterances and that was it.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is like a father to Bindow and he will never entertain anything is such on the president.”
Abdulmalik, who is the secretary of APC Stakeholders Forum in Yola South, said in a statement that contrary to the ruse which Bindow’s apologists were dishing out that the former governor convened a stakeholders meeting to reconcile warring factions, he only assembled his political stooges and appointees.
He accused the stooges of assaulting and denigrating President Muhammadu Buhari for not bringing back Bindow to power at all cost and for the refusal to give him any federal appointment.
The statement added: “As far as I’m concerned, that anger is misplaced, because you can’t expect a disciplined man like President Buhari to rig an election in order to hoist his party man who worked contrary to the people’s wishes to power.
“We all know that Kabiru Mijinyawa was governor Bindow’s favourite under whom the governor rode the state roughshod till our party was ousted from power. The host of the meeting, was a commissioner under Bindow, the suspended caretaker chairman of Yola South APC was the chairman of the party when Bindow ruled and Yushau Adamu was also an adviser of the former governor.
“If Bindow has the president at heart, the moment they started abusing him, he ought to rein in them or even rebuke them. But listening to such vituperations amounts to complicity.
“Before the said meeting, APC was calm even though Bindow wants to tell the world the party was in crisis necessitating his intervention. Nobody was abused and nobody wished anyone death. But surprisingly, during a so-called reconciliatory meeting, we heard abuses and even death wishes. Can we in all honesty say reconciliation took place?
“Reconciliation usually takes place between two parties involved in conflict. Is Kabiru Mijinyawa in conflict with Prince Mustapha Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha or the others?”
