ALLAFRICA

Lagos — Daily Champion gathered from highly authoritative security sources that the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) had concluded plans to mobilize some Nigerians in the Diaspora to protests before the White House as Jonathan meets President Barack Obama.

The source which said the protests were being organised from Nigeria, also said those behind them have mobilized groups from Japan and China with the plan to embarrass Jonathan and the country with demands for the impeachment of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua and electoral reforms.

According to the source, top guns of the SNG were recently in Japan where they engaged different Nigerian groups and distributed inciting materials against the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the leadership of the National Assembly which they are accusing of not working to impose the Uwais electoral reform report on Nigerians.

The source told Daily Champion that the protests are planned to spread to other parts of the world were Nigerians are being mobilized to protest in front of Nigerian embassies and high commission.

Though the source did not name those behind the planned protest, he however told Daily Champion that a former governor has been identified as part of the planners of the protests.

He said: "We are aware of what they are planning and if they go ahead to do that, it will be very embarrassing to Jonathan and Nigeria.

"We already know those behind the plot and have their detailed plan to recruit Nigerians even in far away Japan and China to protest and demand that President Yar'Adua be impeached. They are also demanding electoral reforms and Iwu's removal. We are waiting to see how far they go with that. But you can be sure we are on top of it," the source said.

Meanwhile, a source in New York confirmed the plot to Daily Champion noting that the US may be a fertile ground fro such protest because of a seeming discomfort which the US government had expressed over Yar'Adua's foreign policy direction.

According to the source, the US government had been unhappy with Yar'Adua for shifting Nigeria's foreign policy to the Middle East and also embarrassing some of US' unfriendly states.

He said President Yar'Adua's decision to visit Saudi Arabia and be part of a university commissioning ceremony when the US President had expected him in New York for the United Nations General Summit was a show of disrespect to the US.

He also chronicled other actions taken by Yar'Adua, including welcoming Russia and allowing the formation of a joint gas business venture between the two countries; reception of Iranian authorities and the acceptance of offers by Iran to help Nigeria solve its energy problem through the development of nuclear energy, as disturbing to the US.

"The fact is that President Yar'Adua showed too much comfort with the Middle East states and Russia and these, as you know, are not too friendly to the US foreign policy objective of domination and subjugation; for these, you don't expect the US to be comfortable with Yar'Adua and that is why they would want him impeached," the source said.

Speaking further, the New York source said it was for this that the SNG has found and ally in some agencies in the US which, according to him, are funding operations of the SNG with the aim of impeaching Yar'Adua.

"What you actually did not know is that the SNG is being funded from here by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They have a $125m budget for the SNG with the aim of ensuring that they put pressure on Nigerians to demand that Yar'Adua be impeached.

"It is for this that they are penetrating Nigeria like an unsecured land and have their operatives in most Nigerian cities since last December when the Abdulmutallab's issue came up.

"You now have CIA agents in Abuja. Katsina, Kano, the Niger Delta and Lagos working with some top Nigerians, in both the state and national assemblies, to see how they could influence the impeachment of Yar'Adua.

"But they have now seen that it will be difficult to achieve that and that is why they are shifting base to America, Europe and South East Asia to begin protest in front of embassies and see if they can attract more sympathy from a larger world audience and use same to embarrass Jonathan into taking decisions that are favourable to them," he stated.