Seven governors at PDP Governors Forum meeting

 

Only seven of the 23 states where the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) holds sway attended the PDP Governors’ Forum meeting in Abuja yesterday.

Governors at the meeting held at the Akwa Ibom Governor’s lodge, were Chairman Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Liyel Imoke (Cross River); Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa); Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara); Mukhtar Yero (Kaduna); and Acting Governor of Taraba State, Garba Umar.

Governors were: Benue, Adamawa, Plateau, Katsina, Abia, Bauchi, Ebonyi and Kogi were represented by their deputies.

Governors that did not attend and failed to send their deputies were Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) who is abroad; Sule Lamido (Adamawa); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano); Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto); Aliyu Dakingari (Kebbi); and Sullivan Chime(Enugu).

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur yesterday defended the formation of the PDP Governors Forum.

Tukur told reporters at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) in Kano that there was nothing wrong for his office to create a new forum for PDP governors. He described the step as part of his reforms agenda.

“They are two different institutions; and this is what people fail to understand. There is no division among the PDP governors. My governors are my foot soldiers. The emergence of the PDP Governors Forum is part of the needed reforms and that is what I have come to do in the PDP—to reconcile the party.

“I believe in reconciliation without confrontation; I believe in reconciliation without revenge. My ambition is the rebuilding of the PDP, based on equity and justice,” Tukur stated.

On his endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 ambition, Tukur said it was too early to start thinking of who gets what in 2015. “The issue of 2015 is not the agenda now because we have not concluded the agenda for 2013, left alone that of 2014 and then 2015,” he said.

Tukur, who was visiting Emir Ado Abdullahi Bayero over the 19 January attack on his convoy, also had a brief meeting with the Kano PDP leadership at the airport before boarding his flight back to Abuja.

At Bayero’s Palace, Tukur thanked God for sparing the Emir’s life and prayed that God will continue to guide and protect the royal father. The Emir urged Nigerians to pray for the return of peace and stability in the country.