The news broke last weekend in Abuja that one of the leading agents of Goodluck Jonathan campaign for president was kidnap and he was later rescued but one special news out of the kidnaped issue is the identity of the person that was kidnaped. There is controversy in Nigeria about the identity of a man linked to the president who was kidnapped and freed in the dramatic rescue. Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, a key political ally of President Goodluck Jonathan, was abducted from his home on Friday.
It provoked widespread shock because he was believed to be the son of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, who was assassinated in the coup of 1966 that was led by Nzeogu Kaduna and claimed the lifes of eminent personalities like, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Akintola and Eboh.
It was after the rescue that the real nomenclature of the Kidnapped person cuts the attention of people and investigations begins on who exactly is Jhalil “Tafawa Balewa”.The man was trying to campaign for Mr Jonathan ahead of elections due early in 2011, even though the president has not said whether he intends to stand.Police left nothing to chance to free a man widely believed to be the son of the country’s first prime minister.
The gunpoint abduction of President Jonathan’s political ally sparked a police operation ending in gunfire, deep in forests outside the capital.
“We staked out the forest undercover,” says police spokesman Moshood Jimoh, describing the dramatic kidnap and twilight rescue.
“There was an arrangement to pay the ransom. Secretly, we were there.”
According to the BBC report on Jhalil, Saddik Tafawa Balewa who is the fourth son of the late Prime Minister say ” He is neither the nephew, neither the son, neither the grandson of my father”. The Original Tafawa balewa family claimed that they dont know him and have been challenging him on theft of identity.
One may be curious to know why the president and commander in chief of the armed forces will be associating with a fraud star all in the name of politics and plan to capture the North at all cost.
The victim (Jhalil) was high-profile. Not only was he the leader of a sensitive campaign to drum up support for Mr Jonathan to stand for president next year, he also bore a revered name for those old enough and have read about “The Golden Voice of Africa”, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
According to the spokesman of the family Saddik Tafawa Balewa stated that, “I am sorry to hear of anyone being kidnapped, but the time has come to be clear. He is not a member of our family, either by blood or by marriage.” He averred.
He described how the Balewas had met the man several times, trying to establish his identity.”We first heard of a person from America, going around the corridors of power, claiming to be a grandson. After that, he said he was a son,” he remembers.
The family say they repeatedly asked for evidence, including DNA evidence, but none has been forthcoming.
Saddik Tafawa Balewa declined to speculate further, saying only: “We, as a family, feel exploited.” -Exploited by who? (JJ).
It may intrest you to know that letter (J) starts Jonathan and (J) starts Jhalil also; so we now have (JJ) to drible millions of Northerners to vote for Goodluck in replacement of MARADONNA.
Political insiders are now scrabbling for information about the mystery kidnap victim of whom so little is known, and questioning how he secured such a sensitive role.”You can’t make mistakes like this,” one long-time observer said, in disbelief.
No political adviser to the president has been available for comment about Jhalil Tafawa Balewa’s identity.
He leads “Goodluck na Kowa”, meaning Goodluck For All in Hausa, the language of the country’s north.
The group is trying to grow support for the president, precisely where he faces his fiercest resistance.
With elections barely five months away, there is no word on whether the president will run, and he is severely hampered by his southern roots.
Nigeria’s current political climate makes it almost impossible for any northern figure to support the president, and politically, the lure of the Balewa name may have seemed a gilt-edged opportunity and that is the reason we now have the new formation of JJ of politics (Jonathan and Jhalil).