PDP Crisis: Aggrieved Governors gaining grounds… meets Jonathan on Sunday again
The crisis rocking the PDP may be taking a new turn as the issue seems to be standing between President Goodluck Jonathan and seven aggrieved governors of the party in their efforts to resolved has not yielded any positive results even after the Tuesday night meeting. The President will meet again with the aggrieved seven governors in Abuja on Sunday.
NigerianEcho learnt that while the President was ready to listen to the grievances of the governors, Mr. Jonathan according to sources also showed high level of readiness to make some concessions. The President and his team however showed indifference to the Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, who is seen as a potential scapegoat of the crisis at the meeting.
Series of issue were discussed by both parties at the meeting. On the President side were Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, Chief Tony Anenih; Governors of Kogi, Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, Idris Wada, Liyel Imoke and Godswill Akpabio respectively. While the aggrieved parties were represented by Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Governor Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Aliyu Babangida (Niger), and Sule Lamido (Jigawa).
During the meeting the President directed that the State Working Committees of the party in both Kano and Adamawa States be restored when the issue of party structure was raised. NigerianEcho gathered that President Jonathan and his team advised all the parties to withdraw their suits in court before party structure issue could be resolve in Rivers State.
Meanwhile, the tension at the meeting got too much, 2015 poll was put on the agenda for the next meeting on Sunday. The fate of the PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, will also be an important issue at the next session to determine the way forward for the PDP our source disclosed.
“I can tell you that Sunday’s meeting will determine the way forward,” a source at the meeting said.
The source said Jonathan had earlier conceded to the first three demands of the governors which included that the Adamawa State PDP leadership backed by Governor Murtala Nyako be restored and that the suspension on the Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi from the party be lifted.
When the governors raised the third issue on the leadership of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Jonathan was said to have indicated that it was a governors’ affair and directed that Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu and his Jigawa counterpart Sule Lamido meet to sort it out, agreeing that he would be amenable to their decision.
Cross River State Governor Liyel Imoke was said to have been angered by the situation at the meeting, asking why the president was being handed down conditions. He was cut short by other ‘rebel’ governors who told the meeting that they were only holding Jonathan to the promises he made “at four different occasions” and not handing down any conditions.
Meanwhile the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Barrister Ahmed Gulak, yesterday described as unconstitutional, the demands by the seven aggrieved governors of the party.
