11 Governors Shun PDP Govs Forum Meeting

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum may not be over soon as 11  out of the 23 governors  of  the party  failed to attend its meeting in Abuja on Wednesday night.

The meeting, which was initially slated for 3pm, had to be shifted to 8pm when information got to its organisers   that majority of the governors might not attend.

At 8pm, the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, who was also at the Akwa Ibom State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro District, Abuja, had to leave  due to poor attendance by the governors.

Tukur was said to have come with the intention of briefing the governors on the modalities he  had considered before naming members of the party’s National Reconciliation Committee.

The majority of the governors and other stakeholders were said to have rejected  the appointment of the Governor of Bayelsa  State, Mr. Seriake Dickson,  as the chairman of the committee.

Apart from coming from the same state as President Goodluck Jonathan, Dickson is seen as part of the problems rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the PDP.  Dickson openly   supports  the  Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang, who was  defeated by Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State during the forum’s election on May 24.   Amaechi  won  19 votes  and  Jang,   16  votes.

Shortly after the meeting ended, our correspondent gathered from a top member of the PDP that the Bayelsa governor had indicated his readiness to reject  the appointment.

The governors that boycotted the meeting were those of Kano, Jigawa,  Adamawa, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba, Rivers, Cross River , Ebonyi, Bauchi and Kebbi.

The meeting was however attended by  Dickson and his counterparts in Delta, Benue, Kogi, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Katisna and Abia states.  Governors of Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Gombe states  sent their deputies.

 Apart from the reconciliation matter, other issues on the agenda at the meeting were the forthcoming national convention of the party and the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State.

At the end of the meeting, Akwa Ibom State Governor and  Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum,  Chief Godswill Akpabio,  said the meeting deliberated on issues like the convention and the crisis in the Rivers State House  of Assembly.

Akpabio said the governors would support Tukur by mobilising delegates  for  the convention.

Describing   what happened in the Rivers State House of Assembly  as “unfortunate,”  he  appealed  to “the two warring groups to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign.”

He said the next meeting of the PDP GF would hold in Bayelsa State.

Akpabio said that the  governors decided to rotate their meetings in order to learn from themselves.

He attributed the poor attendance recorded at the meeting to late information sent to the governors, adding that the meeting was an emergency one.

At the end of the meeting, the governors went to the Presidential Villa  to confer with President Goodluck Jonathan.