However, the governors have also reportedly made a commitment to the president that the Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who won the NGF election would be compelled to apologise to the president.
The apology commitment, LEADERSHIP gathered, was as a result of the strong exceptions President Jonathan took to some disparaging remarks Governor Amaechi personally made against his (Jonathan) person in the course of the debacle.
The president was said to have expressed his displeasure over Amaechi’s utterances to the visiting governors.
The governors who met with the president at the Presidential Villa on Saturday are those of Niger State, Muazu Babangida Aliyu; Kano State, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso; Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako; Sokoto State, Aliyu Wammako; and Jigawa State, Sule Lamido.
The Aso Rock parley which marked a significant leap in the lingering crisis ended with speculations that the governors had demanded from the president the sack of the party’s national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, as well as the recognition of Governor Amaechi as chairman of the NGF.
Although it could not be confirmed if President Jonathan had acquiesced to the demand of the governors to sack Tukur, a top presidency source told LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity that “one of the demands the president has been worried about is that of the NGF election”.
According to the source, President Jonathan has been put on pressure from “some respectable quarters” on the NGF crisis. He said: “Even before the visit of the governors to the president, there had been some pressure from some respectable quarters in the land concerning the NGF issue.
“It is not as if Mr President was involved in the whole thing called NGF even from the time of its election to the time the governors started having it rough with one another; the players were only dragging in the name of the president for nothing.
“But I think the visit was a good one because, as party members, there is no way we can fight for too long because we all need ourselves; the only thing that baffles me is their demand for the removal of the national chairman; it is a matter of law; the man can’t be removed just like that.
“Of all the demands, the one the president has been worried about is that of the NGF election because it marks a point of departure for our democracy.
“As a democrat who believes in the rule of law, Governor Amaechi’s excesses from all indications may be overlooked so that we all forge ahead because politics is about give and take; after all, it is not the NGF which is a voluntary body that will decide who gets what.”
LEADERSHIP gathered that as part of the concessions being mooted, President Jonathan is to meet his key loyalists after which he would meet with all PDP governors next week.
Apart from debriefing his loyalists, Jonathan, it was gathered, will use the opportunity of today’s meeting to canvass the replacement of Akwa-Ibom State governor, Godswill Akpabio, as chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Akpabio, LEADERSHIP learnt, may be replaced by his Katsina State counterpart, Ibrahim Shehu Shema.
Shema was in the race for the NGF chairmanship before the entry of Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda, that eventually led to the adoption of Governor Jang as the consensus candidate of the pro-Jonathan governors.
Arewa group on Tukur’s removal, Amaechi’s recognition
Meanwhile, the Arewa Patriotic Forum (APF) has faulted the call by the five PDP governors for the sack of Tukur.
The group, in a statement by its national coordinator Alhaji Ibrahim Bawa, also warned against the recognition of Amaechi as chairman of the NGF.
“We want to refer to the recent press reports on the visit of the five northern governors to the president during which they demanded the immediate removal of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur as the national chairman of the PDP as well as the recognition of Governor Rotimi Amaechi as the chairman of the NGF.
“We consider the calls as abnormal as one would have expected them to learn to be tolerant of one another. The demands are self-serving and very despicable as elected governors on the platform of the PDP,” the statement said in part.
Dickson may use Ekwueme’s report to commence work
In the meantime, the Bayelsa State governor Seriake Dickson-led Committee on Reconciliation may re-visit the report of the Dr Alex Ekwueme committee as a thrust to start its job.
The committee had on Monday unveiled four strategies to achieving true reconciliation of aggrieved party members.
The strategies, the committee disclosed, are confidentiality, strategic communication, neutrality, and fairness.
Court dismisses speaker’s suit against police
Also, a Rivers State high court has dismissed a suit by the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Amachree, to restrain the police from arresting him over the alarm he raised concerning a plot to assassinate Governor Chibuike Amaechi.
The presiding judge, Justice Adolphous Enebeli, after hearing the arguments of the parties involved in the matter, said there was no legal justification to issue a perpetual injunction as requested by the speaker to restrain the police from investigating any citizen of Nigeria for an offence.
We’ve no reason to torture Rivers House leader – police
... Lloyd not in police custody
The police in Rivers State finally broke their silence on allegations that they were torturing the leader of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Chidi Lloyd, saying the security outfit has no reason to do so.
Also, the police said the House leader is not in their custody.
Deputy speaker of the Assembly Hon. Leyii Kwanee had at a news briefing in Port Harcourt on Sunday alleged that Lloyd was being tortured and was going blind due to tear gas poured on him by policemen.
Kwanee who spoke on behalf of 27 lawmakers loyal to the state governor, Chibuike Amaechi, also alleged that Lloyd was being held at the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID, even as he said the state police commissioner, Mbu Josehp Mbu, should be held responsible should anything untoward happen to Lloyd.
But the state commissioner of police, Mr Mbu, said he had neither set his eyes on the House leader nor remembered the last time he (Mbu) saw him, adding that Lloyd was not in the custody of the state police command.
Mbu, who made the denial at a press briefing on Monday, explained that Hon. Lloyd had earlier reported to the Force Headquarters in Abuja and was later brought back to Port Harcourt, maintaining that he (Lloyd) was still in the custody of those that brought him from Abuja.
“Even when there is an earthquake (God forbid) in Rivers State, they will say it is the commissioner for police who arranged for the earthquake. So that is the truth about the issue involving the House leader.
“The case is out of my hands and I cannot even remember when I saw him, except on our video clip,” Mbu said.
On claims and allegations that Lloyd was being tortured, Mbu said Lloyd’s offence was real, but that it was neither a case of armed robbery nor suspected murder, pointing out that the police have no reason to torture him.
Jonathan, Amaechi to meet with Queen Akasoba August 3
Meanwhile, in a bid to broker peace among the principal characters in the Rivers State political impasse, Her Royal Majesty Queen Akasoba Duke-Abiola, the Akasoba of Kalabari and Chair, Akasoba Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ACPCR), has invited President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi to a reconciliatory meeting billed to hold this Sturday, August 3, 2013.
Also on the list of key figures to attend the meeting are former head of state General Yakubu Gowon; first president of Zambia Dr Kenneth Kaunda; former United Nations secretary-general Dr Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali and traditional rulers from across the country.
According to a statement issued on behalf of Queen Akasoba by the secretary of the ACPCR, Dr Jen Clarence, the royal fathers and other persons billed to attend the peace and resolution conference include all traditional rulers of Rivers State as well as the Emir of Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris; the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Air Marshal Ernest Adeleye, former governor of old Rivers State; and Mr Mofia Akobo, former minister of petroleum resources.
Source: Leadership
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