In a statement released in Abuja Monday, the governors said they were displeased that Mr. Jonathan had shown no commitment to addressing the issues they raised at past meetings with him. The governors are Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara), and Murtala Nyako (Adamawa).
The statement was signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the new PDP, Chukwuemeka Eze. It disclosed that members of the PDP faction met Sunday night in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, and deliberated on issues brought to the president’s attention by the aggrieved governors at two separate meetings they held with Mr. Jonathan.
The statement revealed that some of the aggrieved governors’ demands included “the need to reverse the impunity in Rivers State, where a sitting Governor was suspended from the party against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the PDP Constitution, and refusing to uphold the result of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum election that saw Governor Amaechi winning 19 to 16 votes against Governor Jang.”
According to Mr. Eze’s statement, the splinter group also demanded the removal of Bamanga Tukur as the party’s national chairman, citing the flawed nature of his election into the post. They also called for an end to what they called “the impunity in Adamawa State,” adding that their demands would put the PDP “in a strong position as a political party but for reasons not too clear to some of us failed to receive the blessing of Mr. President.”
Mr. Eze stated that the faction’s Sunday meeting noted with sadness that, instead of President Jonathan critically examining and acting on some of the issues raised, Mr. Jonathan had looked the other way as members of the new PDP in various states of Nigeria were being persecuted, humiliated through the unfair use of state power, arrested and put into prison as reportedly happened in Bayelsa and Gombe States. He suggested that the acts of intimidation demonstrated a disdain for peace and represented a plot to destroy the party.
Prominent members of the new PDP who attended Sunday’s meeting included Governors Kwankwaso, Wamakko, Nyako, Amaechi, and Lamido. Other participants included former Governors Adamu Aliero (Kebbi State), Bukola Saraki (Kwara State), Danjuma Goje (Gombe State), and Abdullahi Adamu (Nasarawa State). The meeting was also attended by the faction’s national chairman, Abubakar Kawu Baraje; deputy chairman, Sam Sam Jaja, national secretary Olagunsoye Oyinlola, and vice-chairman, North-West, Ibrahim Kazaure, among others.
The governors of Kwara and Niger States sent messages explaining their inability to attend the meeting.
credit-sahara report
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