PDP govs meet over 2015 elections

The Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum met in Abuja on Tuesday night to strategise on how best to neutralise the threat posed by the emergence of Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2015 elections.

The meeting, which was held at the Akwa Ibom State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja started at about 8.30pm and ended at about 10.45pm.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of the forum and the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, said issues of mutual interest were discussed.

He parried questions about the crisis emanating from the just-concluded primaries of the party across the states, insisting that it was an issue which the party leadership was handling.

Akpabio said, “We met to discuss the state of our party, and of course, it was a strategic meeting because of the period we are in. We looked at what the situation is today and we are very confident that with the strategies that have been drawn, the PDP remains the party to beat.

“We feel strongly that at the end of the day, their (APC) propaganda will fail and Nigerians will know that the only truly national party that can provide answers to their aspirations is the PDP.

“We discussed issues state by state and we are quite confident that by the year 2015, victory will be for the PDP.”

Three of the aggrieved PDP governors, Martins Elechi (Ebonyi), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta) and Sullivan Chime (Enugu) were absent from the meeting.

However, Akpabio explained that their absence was due to the unfavourable weather condition which made flights from their states difficult.

Fifteen governors attended the meeting. They include, Liyel Imoke (Cross River); Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Isa Yuguda (Bauchi); Jonah Jang (Plateau); Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi); Siriake Dickson (Bayelsa); and Theodore Orji (Abia).

Also, in order to avert defeat in the forthcoming 2015 presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan and the national leadership of the party had lined up a series of meetings aimed at placating aggrieved members of the party across the country.

One of such meetings was the one the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu, had with him and a former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Kalu, at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday night.

The meeting, it was learnt, was aimed at persuading Kalu and his supporters from defecting from the ruling party to another party.

Kalu, a former presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, was a senatorial aspirant in the ruling party but was denied the opportunity of taking part in the primary.

Consequently, Kalu was said to have vowed that he would move to another party where he and his supporters would pursue their ambitions.

At the meeting with Kalu, President Jonathan and Mu’azu were said to have discussed how to find a lasting solution to the intractable crisis in the Abia State chapter of the party.

Also at the meeting was a former Taraba State Governor, Rev. Jolly Nyame.

They came to the President’s private residence in the Villa in a black jeep.

Also at the President’s waiting room at the time these men got there were the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, and the House Majority Leader, Mulikat Akande.