More facts have emerged on the Sunday night meeting between President
Goodluck Jonathan and aggrieved governors in the New Peoples
Democratic Party.
Presidency sources made this known just as Jonathan met behind closed
doors with some PDP governors loyal to the Bamanga Tukur-led National
Working Committee of the party.
One of the sources at the Sunday meeting, said that the President and
the other attendees discussed and agreed on five contentious issues:
Amaechi’s suspension by the Tukur-led NWC; control of the PDP structure
at the state level; Jonathan’s alleged 2015 ambition; Tukur’s fate and
court cases.
On Amaechi, the parties agreed that he should be recalled and that a
committee be constituted to visit Port Harcourt and reconcile all
aggrieved members of the PDP in the state.
The governor was suspended on June 21 for his alleged refusal to
“obey the lawful directive of the Rivers State Executive Committee to
rescind his decision dissolving the elected Executive Council of
Obiokpor Local Government Area of the state.”
The meeting also accepted that all the governors of the party,
including the aggrieved ones, should be
in charge of the State Working
Committees of the party in their respective states.
It was further learnt that since the governors were to be in
charge of the party structures in their states, President Jonathan
should determine the fate of Tukur, who all the aggrieved governors
want removed.
Our source said that “the President argued that since it had been
accepted that he should not interfere in the running of the party at
the state level, he should be allowed to determine what would happen to
its national chairman (Tukur).”
He added that the meeting, which was also attended by three pro-Tukur
governors – Godswill Akpabio(Akwa Ibom), Idris Wada(Kogi) and Liyel
Imoke (Cross River State) – agreed that all pending court cases
concerning the party must be withdrawn immediately.
Amaechi is therefore expected to withdraw a case in which he is
challenging his suspension. Also, numerous cases filed by members of
the New PDP and the Tukur-led PDP will also be discontinued.
It was gathered that Jonathan’s 2015 ambition,generated heated
arguments as the aggrieved governors insisted that he had told them
that he would not run for a second term.
According to our source, the President argued that there was no time he told anyone that he would not contest for second term.
We gathered that Jonathan specifically accused one of the aggrived
governors, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, of misleading Nigerians on
the 2015 debate.
Aliyu was said to have told the President he had said at different fora that he was not going to seek re-election.
“The governor listed Ethiopia, United States and different caucus
meetings of the party where the President made the statements,” our
source added.
When argument on the issue raged,the Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the PDP , Chief Tony Anenih, who was also present at the
meeting,which was held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja,
interjected
and advised that it should be suspended for a latter date.
The source said, “It was a give and take meeting, but at the end of
the day, we agreed that the issue of 2015 should be revisited and
resolved amicably.
“I can tell you that the meeting was very frank . We all spoke our
minds, including the President and his deputy (Namadi Sambo). So, we
wait to see the implementation of the resolutions reached.”
The other aggrieved governors, who were also pillars of the New PDP
at the meeting were Amaechi (Rivers), Rabiu Kwankwanso (Kano), Murtala
Nyaho (Adamawa), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara).
A statement read by Aliyu at the end of the talks stated that the
parties agreed to avoid inflammatory remarks, pending the final
resolution of the crisis.
The statement added that further talks would continue on October 7.
On Monday Jonathan held secret talks with Wada, Benue State Governor
Gabriel Suswam and other PDP governors loyal to Tukur at the
Presidential Villa.
The identitities of the other governors were not known as they arrived in the Villa in vehicles with security number plates.
A source in the Villa described the meeting as “consultative.”
Earlier on Monday, Akpabio and Anenih were also sighted in the
Villa. Commenting on the outcome of the meeting, the National Publicity
Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the leadership of the
PDP was happy that the problems bedevilling the party were being
resolved.
Metuh said, “We are very happy and grateful to the President, former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of BoT and other elders of
the party.
“We are also happy with our governors. We are happy that the party has shown that it is capable of resolving its crises.”
In spite of the ‘no inflammatory comment order’, the Special Adviser
to the President on Political Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Gulak, boasted on
Monday that nobody could intimidate the President into not contesting in
2015.
“The 1999 Constitution gives Mr. President the right to offer
himself for second term if he so chooses and no individual or group can
abridge his constitutional right. If he decides not to contest, let it
be on his own volition not because he is intimidated or cajoled into
doing that, ” he told State House correspondents in Abuja.
Gulak, who added that peace was gradually returning to the party, said that Tukur would survive the crises.
He said, “The national chairman has no problem. He was elected and
I always say that as there are processes for election, there are
processes for removal or resignation. So nobody can cajole anybody to
say the national chairman will not survive. Nobody is against the
national chairman.”
The Presidential aide dismissed claims that the crisis would mark
the end of the ruling party, saying it (PDP) has internal mechanism for
resolving its problems
“We have entered into dialogue. Peace is gradually returning to the
PDP in accordance with the constitution of the party and in accordance
with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These two
documents are our guides. We abide by them and we dialogue in accordance
with the provision of the constitution,” he said.
Gulak explained that the President would consider the demands of the aggrieved governors based on the constitution
He also said that the President would never ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission not to perform its duties.