During an interview from 16:21 on Arise Television on Friday, July 24, 2026, Chief Dan Ulasi, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, recounted events leading up to the party’s first presidential primary, alleging that former military president Ibrahim Babangida intervened to stop Alex Ekwueme from emerging as the PDP’s presidential candidate.
Speaking during the interview, Ulasi claimed that former President Shehu Shagari had mobilized northern delegates to support Ekwueme at the convention held in Jos. He alleged that Babangida later contacted northern political leaders and argued against Ekwueme’s emergence because it would undermine the justification for the 1983 military coup that removed both Shagari and Ekwueme from office.
According to him, “At the first PDP convention that finally brought Olusegun Obasanjo as our candidate. Shehu Shagari had organized all the northern delegates and came in to Jos to support Alex Ekwueme, and I’m happy that he’s still alive. Ibrahim Babangida had to intervene and called all the northern leaders that if Alex Ekwueme was allowed to be president, it would make nonsense of the coup they carried out that removed him and Shagari. That was why we lost the convention, the presidential primary….See More