FOUR REBEL GOVERNOR MEET PRESIDENT JONATHAN

FOUR REBEL GOVERNOR MEET PRESIDENT JONATHAN

Four of the seven aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party governors on Tuesday met with President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja to protest ‘the belligerence’ of the party’s National Chairman, Dr.  Bamanga Tukur.

Before the meeting, Jonathan had held  two separate closed doors meetings  with two elders of the PDP and three governors  sympathetic to the  Tukur-led  faction over the crisis rocking the party.

The elders  were  Dr. Ahmadu Ali, a  former chairman of the PDP; and  Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, an  ex-military President.

The three governors that met with him earlier on Tuesday were  Godswill Akpabio(Akwa Ibom), Gabriel Suswan (Benue); and  Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta).

The PUNCH also  gathered that the  the four ‘rebel’ governors – Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and  Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) – reiterated their demand for the recognition of  their Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Amaechi, as  the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

They were also said to have asked the President to ask Tukur to halt plans to take over the party’s structure in their various states.

These, among other things, were parts of demands tabled before the President at a closed-door meeting   held at the First Lady’s wing of the Presidential Villa.

It was also gathered that those at the meeting commended elders of the party for their various efforts at resolving the crisis that led to the factionalisation of the ruling party. They equally commended the President for his disposition towards the various peace moves.

Three of the aggrieved governors who were absent from the meeting were  Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano); and Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara).

It was gathered that  Kwankwaso and Ahmed  travelled  out of the country.

A-yet-to-be verified information claimed that the governors equally asked the President to replace Vice-President Namadi Sambo with one of them as a pre-condition for their support should he decide to seek  a second term in 2015.

A source privy to the meeting said, “The aggrieved  governors are ready for peace;  that is why they   attended  the meeting in the first place. However, it is doubtful if any progress can be made if unconstitutional actions taken by the Tukur-led National Working Committee of the party  are not reversed.”

Jonathan had earlier on Tuesday met first with Suswan, Akpabio and Uduaghan  as well as Babangida and Ali over the crisis in the party.

Suswan avoided State House correspondents outright while Akpabio and Uduaghan who were approached declined comments on their way out of the Villa.

Ali and Babangida,  who   are among the seven PDP elders brokering peace between the Tukur-led PDP and the Abubakar Baraje group known as the New PDP,    arrived  at the Villa around 1pm and left after  about an hour.

Since the PDP split on August 31, 2013, Jonathan has met with several stakeholders in the party, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also one of the seven  elders of the party.

He has also met with   Aliyu , Kwankwaso, Nyako  and   Ahmed,  who are backing the New PDP.

Meanwhile, the New PDP has said its leaders refused to be part of the post convention dinner held at the Presidential Villa on Monday because they  considered it as a waste of resources.

It said there was no need for the dinner because  there were other serious national issues that needed urgent attention.

In a  statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, the New PDP said national issues like the ongoing strike by the university teachers  ought to attract urgent attention of President Jonathan.

It said,  “To us, that dinner was organised to give credibility to the charade that was called PDP Special National Convention.

“As a serious group, we cannot be a party to such squandermania while Nigerian masses are wallowing in abject poverty and our children kept at home instead of being in school because the Federal Government could not meet the  lecturers’  demands.

“We wish to have nothing to do with such, which we considered as wasting of public funds and such trivialities associated with Tukur and his leadership – which explains why he must be kicked out of the national secretariat of the party.

“We cannot be a party to such a gathering while the PDP family is facinga  serious crisis that if not checked would dim the party’s chances of winning future elections. This is a sign of a man chasing a rat while his house is on fire.”

It also  also urged Tukur  and  his team  to stop making   statements capable of derailing the efforts of the elders committee of the party under the leadership of  Obasanjo to restore normalcy and unity amongst PDP members.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the Tukur-led PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, said, “We will not exchange words with our aggrieved brothers;  reconciliation is ongoing and  our focus is to redouble the efforts to ensure that our  members rededicate  themselves to the party and for our elected and appointed representatives to work harder now more than ever in satisfying the yearnings of Nigerians.”

Also on Tuesday, the Tukur-led faction   initiated a fresh contempt suit before the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, against  leaders of the  Baraje-led  group  for allegedly violating an order of the court.

The   suit is different from the one  the Tukur group  filed before a  Federal High Court, Abuja, against the same   set of defendants, including Baraje and the  National Secretary of the New PDP, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The  fresh   suit listed the  alleged contemnors as  a former National Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja; Maode Hiliya, Timi Frank, Mrs. Binta Koje, Mallam Nasir Issa, Eze, Aliyu Wadada and Mallam Tanko Gomna.