Jonathan’s Aides Go After PDP Chief Over Impeachment Comment

Dr. Sam Jaja


SaharaReporters has been reliably informed that the closest aides to President Goodluck Jonathan have gone after Sam Jaja, the deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, over Mr. Jaja’s comments that the President has committed impeachable offences.

Last week, Mr. Jaja told journalists at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja that “Mr.  President is making errors that require impeachment.”

The PDP official had made the startling admission to reporters who asked what actions the party would take to resolve the face-off between President Jonathan and some members of the House of Representatives. The representatives have been threatening to impeach Mr. Jonathan over his poor implementation of the budget.

For two weeks, members of the House have been demanding that the president improve on his budget implementation record before the members resume from their break in September or face impeachment.
Mr. Jaja’s comment was seen as a bold, if shocking, moment of honesty and candor by a top politician from the president’s political zone. Several sources close to Mr. Jaja and within the Presidency told

SaharaReporters that Mr. Jaja has been bombarded with reproachful calls from the Presidency, especially from the office of Mike Oghiadomhe, the president’s chief of staff.

Our sources disclosed that Mr. Ogiadome told Mr. Jaja that the President was furious at his candid comments and demanded that he immediately retract the statement.

Inundated by rebukes from the president’s men, Mr. Jaja tried to deny the statement credited to him, said a source close to the PDP official. “But when Dr. Jaja listened to the audio tape of the press briefing and heard his own voice, he did not know what to say again,” said the source.
A source told SaharaReporters that the Presidency has also called for the audio and video tapes of the press briefing.

Meanwhile, in a style reminiscent of how former President Olusegun Obasanjo dealt with his enemies within and outside the party, Mr. Jonathan has reportedly ordered that Mr. Jaja be placed under security surveillance.

“What pained Mr. President is that he and Dr. Jaja are both from the south-south geo-political zone,” said a source close to Mr. Jonathan. “And the truth is that Dr. Jaja would not have been there today if not for the president’s support,” the source added.

The source revealed that, prior to Mr. Jaja’s forthright comment, the president was contemplating eventually sponsoring Mr. Jaja to take over from Bamanga Tukur, the PDP’s aged and feeble national chairman, whose running of the party has been widely criticized by members as unsatisfactory.