How we planned to work against Jonathan with ex-Governor Lamido – Amaechi

A former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has narrated how he worked with the ex-governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, to work against the second-term ambition of Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking at the book launch by Lamido, the former Rivers State governor said there were quite a number of times when they both disagreed on political issues.

According to Amaechi, at the beginning of his friendship with Lamido, he (Amaechi) had thought that the former Jigawa governor was as radical as he is.

Both Amaechi and Lamido were in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the buildup of the 2015 general election.

Amaechi, however, left the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC), which later won the presidential poll with Muhammadu Buhari as its candidate.

Highlighting some of the incidents that took place at that time, Amaechi said, “We had our bad times that we disagreed, I made the mistake of assuming that he was as radical as I was, so he was one of the governors I clung to when it came to radical decisions.”

He further stated that one of the incidents that severed their political relationship was when they planned to work against Jonathan during the 2015 poll.

“And I will tell you one of the reasons, there were several things that happened in the course of our friendship. The last one before we broke ranks was that we agreed, all of us agreed to go against President Goodluck Jonathan.

“And we formed a committee, governors and all that. At the end of the day, he (Lamido) was to find a new party called the SDP.

“We said if we go to the new party, we would lose elections,” Amaechi stated.