The EFCC, among others, claimed that the accounts of these companies received huge cash inflows from the state government treasury between 2007 and 2013. Bamaina Aluminium, where the governor and his sons are directors, for instance, was found to have received the sum of N1.52 billion between January 2010 and August 2013 while Bamaina Holdings Ltd’s account. of which the governor is the sole signatory, received the sum of N1.19 billion between 2007 and July 2013. All these sums were received directly from the state government’s accounts in some commercial banks.

Governor Lamido’s spokesman, Mr. Umar Kyari, who reportedly spoke from Dubai on the governor’s support for the adoption of President Jonathan as PDP’s sole candidate, insisted that the governor never had any disagreement with Jonathan on the issue of running for the same office.

According to him, Lamido had never declared any intention to challenge Jonathan in the Presidential race and blamed the governor’s admirers, who he said were satisfied with Lamido’s brilliant performance in Jigawa State, for rooting for his candidacy in the hope that he could replicate same if he becomes the President of Nigeria. “It must be made abundantly clear that Governor Lamido has never told anyone that he was going to challenge Jonathan in the presidential election in 2015,” he stressed.

Many Nigerians however believed that Lamido’s opposition to the North-West’s endorsement of President Jonathan for a second term was a clear indication that the Jigawa governor was also interested in the office and saw such endorsement of President Jonathan by his own zone as a stumbling block to his own 2015 political ambition. To such people, the dramatic change in the governor’s earlier position, leading to his presence at the PDP’s NEC meeting where the President was not just endorsed but adopted as sole candidate, with the governor being called upon to stand up in the glare of all present to show his support for the President’s adoption, had more than meets the eye.

Jigawa State officials, since the governor’s dramatic change have been shouting at the top of their voices claiming that Lamido had insisted that he would only support the President if he fulfilled his campaign promises to the state and not that he wanted to replace him as some persons were insinuating, yet the issue of his family’s involvement in the alleged N10 billion money laundering scam for which senior officials of some commercial banks were recently detained by the DSS, has refused to die. Many are quick to point at the matter as the reason behind the governor’s decision to abandon his 2015 presidential ambition.

Basking in the euphoria of the prospect of an unchallenged contest for the party’s presidential ticket, the party inadvertently cast a cloud of uncertainty over Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s fate when it held that Sambo’s candidacy for the 2015 election was dependent on President Jonathan. This forced the rumour mill to work, with speculations falling upon the other that the forces against the Vice-President’s candidacy, suspected to be spearheaded by Katsina’s Governor Ibrahim Shema, may have succeeded.

The party however, quickly took steps to shut down the rumour mill as the party’s national publicity secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, cleared the air over Sambo’s fate, stating that the PDP has “overwhelming confidence in a winning team that has demonstrably transformed Nigeria in less than four years, despite challenges”, adding that there was no doubt whatsoever that the Vice-President has the implicit confidence of the President: “The PDP is therefore very pleased that the President and Vice-President are working together in actualising the transformation agenda to the popular acclaim of both Nigerians and the international community.”

Part of Metuh’s statement over the speculations about the Vice-President reads: “We wish to place on record as well that the 66th NEC (National Executive Committee) meeting of our great party, which endorsed President Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP for the 2015 general election, responsibly reasoned and this decision on the outstanding performance of the Jonathan presidency of which Vice-President Sambo is an integral part of. This motion which was unanimously endorsed by NEC left no room for any form of speculation, as Senator Jim Nwobodo, who seconded it, expressly commended both thePresident and his deputy for lifting the banner of the PDP very high, while praying the NEC to approve the motion.”

As things stand now in the party, there is no opposition to President Jonathan flying the party’s flag at the 2015 presidential election.