Four 'rebel' governors meet 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.