Jonathan meets Akpabio, Suswam, Jang, over PDP, NGF crises
President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday met behind closed-doors with a factional chairman of the Nigerian Governors' Forum, Mr. Jonah Jang; Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party's Governors Forum, Godswill Akpabio; and Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State.
Although the agenda of the meeting was not made public, a source said the crises in the PDP and the NGF must have partly informed the meeting.
The three governors arrived at the Presidential Villa, Abuja separately and left separately. It was not clear whether the President met with the governors separately or collectively.
They had arrived while Jonathan was presiding over an emergency meeting of the Federal Executive Council inside the Council Chambers.
The governors waited patiently inside the President's office for the meeting to end before they met with him.
Akpabio refused to speak with journalists at the end of the meeting as he claimed that the meeting was not official.
Suswam, who spoke with journalists, did not disclose the purpose of the meeting.
When asked to react to a media report that 10 PDP governors were set to dump the ruling party, he said it was within such governors' constitutional right to do so.
He, however, said he was not one of the governors as he was totally committed to the ruling party.
'If that is the case, I am not one of those governors. So, I can't comment on their behalf. Political party or politics is something that is very free and if people decide to change political parties, it is their prerogative to so do.
'As far as I am concerned, I am hundred per cent PDP. I will stay within the party and continue to work for it to achieve success,' he said.
On the meetings some northern governors held with the President and some former heads of state, Suswam said they were free to consult.
He said, 'They (the northern governors) are free as leaders in their own right to consult. I am not part of why they are consulting or what they are consulting for, but they are going round. I also read in the newspapers and saw them in the pages of newspapers. They have the right to consult.' - Punch.