PDP Convention: More Northern Govs To Meet With OBJ

The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Nigeria, is far from over as more northern governors have scheduled a meeting with former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to strategise on how to torpedo President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid in 2015.

Sources told P.M.NEWS that the crucial meeting would take place before the party’s convention on 31 August. President Jonathan himself has expressed worry about the gang-up against him by governors.

Our correspondent reliably gathered that part of the discussion the four northern governors, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano, Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Dr. Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, had with Obasanjo on Saturday at the closed door meeting held in Abeokuta was to check the excesses of the party’s National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, whom they have described as the most troublesome chairman the party has ever had.

It was also resolved at the meeting, which lasted for almost one and half hours, that the northern governors will be meeting with Obasanjo, the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the party, at his Presidential Hilltop mansion on the weekend that will precede the Id-el-Fitri festival early August.

The governors, as part of their discussion with Ebora Owu in the Ogun State capital during the weekend, narrated how the supporters of the President, the Minister for State for Education, Neysom Wike and the Rivers State PDP Chairman, Obuah humiliated them when they went on solidarity visit to the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi last week.

While speaking with newsmen inside his vehicle when they were leaving at exactly 2:50p.m., Governor of Adamawa State, Rear Admiral Muritala Nyako (retd.), said that they had come to “greet Obasanjo as a father and leader in the party”.

According to Nyako, “we have come to meet with the most accomplished Nigerian ever on a very important matter.”

The national convention of PDP has been slated for Saturday, 31 August, 2013. But this development has rankled the chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur.

Tukur has been accused of sabotaging the efforts of the executive members of the Convention Planning Committee that has Prof. Jerry Gana as Chairman as he had on two occasions barred them from entering his residence.

President Goodluck Jonathan had on Thursday last week directed that the committee should continue their work in ensuring that the party has a successful convention next month.

Jonathan had last week sent state governors to meet with Obasanjo on his quest for the 2015 ticket from the party.

The governors led by Godswill Akpabio of  Akwa Ibom State, had last week presented Jonathan’s view and aspiration before Obasanjo.

Other governors at the meeting were Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and Liyel Imoke of Cross River State.

Following that meeting with Obasanjo was the unscheduled visit by Jonathan to the residence of Ebora Owu on Saturday in Abeokuta when he came on a condolence visit to Dr. Reuben Abati, his Senior Special Assistant (Media), during his mother’s burial.

On why he visited Obasanjo, Jonathan said: “You should know that I must branch at his house when I am in Abeokuta. Obasanjo is my father and I am his son. If I enter Abeokuta and fail to check on Baba at his residence, you people will be thinking that there is a fight between us and there is nothing like that.”

A source close to Obasanjo told our correspondent early this morning that Baba was not happy with the way things are in PDP, saying that the northern governors are threatening to quit the party en masse to another party or form an alternative party.

According to the source, “Baba was not happy. He told us that the northern governors have expressed their displeasure with the way Tukur has been running the party, coupled with the way they have been treating one of his ‘loyal sons’, the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi.

“Some of them have been calling Baba, some even sneak in in the dead of the night, all to seek the nod from Baba whom they had castigated before. Baba remains loyal to the party and will never allow the party to disintegrate. So, he is doing everything within his power to ensure that the party resolves all internal crises before the convention in August.