Jang Visits Jonathan With 14 Faction Governors

The factional leader of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, on Friday, led fourteen other governors loyal to his leadership to a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in State House, Abuja, where he insisted that that he is the duly elected chairman of the body.

After the meeting, held behind closed doors, Jang told State House correspondents that there was no faction in NGF as the forum led by him was the only one recognised in the country.

With him at the meeting were Governors Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Peter Obi (Anambra), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ramallan Yero (Kaduna), and Ibrahim Dakwambo (Gombe).

Others are Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Idris Wada (Kogi), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Garba Umar (Taraba) and the deputy governor of Benue State, Steven Lawani.

Jang said that he led the team of governors in his capacity as their chairman to congratulate the president on his mid-term achievements and to consult with him on national issues.

He insisted that the interaction with the journalists must be short because some of them (the governors) were in a hurry to attend the juma’at service.

“We have met with Mr President with me leading a team of governors from the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to congratulate Mr President and to consult with him on very serious national issues, you know, the security problem in the country and what we need to do in the coming two years to ensure that democracy stabilises and development continues in the country,” he said.

Asked if the issue of factions of the NGF formed part of the meeting, Jang said, “There is no fictionalisation of the NGF. The NGF is one and I am the chairman of the NGF.”

Meanwhile, the Presidency has apparently thrown its weight behind Jang’s faction of the NGF following his emergence from the controversial election where he was said to have garnered 16 votes against Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s 19 votes.

However, Jang argued that he had been chosen as the consensus candidate before a flawed election was conducted.