President
insists Amaechi must go
Akpabio:
we’ll kick out ‘Judases’
Fresh
facts emerged yesterday on the President’s stormy meeting with Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) governors at the Villa.
President
Goodluck Jonathan, who pointedly told the governors to ensure Rivers State
Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi’s removal as the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF)
chairman, threatened to deploy the machinery of government against governors
who did not align with him in his Amaechi-must-go quest.
This
was a prelude to the formation of the PDP Governor’s Forum and the subsequent
election of its chairman.
Amaechi
and Akwa Ibom Governor Godswill Akpabio were asked to leave the room at the
Presidential Villa, according to sources close to the meeting, which took place
Monday night, before the proceedings.
The
sources, who pleaded not to be named because of what they described as the
sensitivity of the matter, said besides treating the governors to video clips
of Amaechi’s verbal attacks on him, President Jonathan listed three points of
threat, which some of the governors saw as “blackmail”.
The
President threatened to deprive the governors of their:
•security
details;
•access
to funds from the excess crude account; and
•refrain
from appending his signature to the benchmark for the budget, which he signed
yesterday.
His
words, which some of the governors saw as dictatorial, did not elicit an open
response. The governors were mute.
In
spite of the threat, however, the governors did not all fall in line as the
anti-Amaechi camp mustered only 16 governors, falling short of the 19 required
for a simple majority to remove the chairman.
“The
opposition governors lined up behind Amaechi but Governor Tanko Al-Makura of
Nasarawa state supported the president.
He was
taken to a private bedroom, where he was persuaded to abandon Amaechi,” another
source said.
Also
yesterday, Akpabio spoke of a looming implosion, treachery and emergence of
Judases within the PDP necessitated the formation of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
Akpabio,
who was at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, accompanied by his
Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson, said the party was in a house
cleansing mission.
According
to him, the challenges confronting the ruling party forced the leadership to
look inwards and put its house in order, stressing that the party never
envisaged such challenges in the 14 years of its existence.
He
said: “Today we are facing challenges. There is implosion in the party; there
is treachery and we now have more Judases than disciples. What the PDP is doing
is to cleanse its house. It is a moving train that will crush anyone that
stands in the way.
“We
will put our heads together in the PDP Governors’ Forum to promote the unity
and progress of the party. We will not be fighting the government because we
will be working in solidarity of the party.
“The
formation of the Forum is to look inwards and project the party and the
government. We are doing self cleansing. We can assure everyone that the Forum
is not above the National Working Committee of the party. The Forum is
subordinate to the party.”
Akpabio
declared that the PDP was not in a hurry to vacate governance at the national
level, stressing that the new Forum would present a formidable bloc within the
larger Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
He
dismissed insinuations that the PDP Governors’ Forum was meant to weaken the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum, saying that it would rather strengthen and hasten its
activities.
PDP
National Chairman Bamanga Tukur said with Akpanio’s emergence as the chairman
of the new Forum, he could now sleep peacefully at night and even serve his
siesta.
Apparently
reliving his ordeal in the hands of the Governors’ Forum, Tukur described the
latest development as a repackaging of the PDP for the 2015 elections.
“With a
repackaged PDP as you can now see, the implication is that it will enable us
mobilise our members ahead of the 2015 general elections and face elections and
win.
“No
doubt, with Chief Tony Anenih as the chairman of our party’s Board of Trustees
(BoT), Governor Godswill Akpabio as the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum
and I as the national chairman, definitely the sky is our limit,” Tukur stated.
The PDP
chairman predicted a two-party system with the emergence of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 elections, saying the elections
will be a straight fight between the APC and the PDP.
Source:
The Nation
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