G7 Govs Shift Ground, Say Jonathan Has right to Contest in 2015
Aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the leadership of Abubakar Bawa Baraje Monday conceded that President Jonathan has the right to contest the 2015 general elections.
This was part of the resolutions they reached after their meeting with the President at the presidential villa Abuja.
Considered as a major shift from their earlier demand the governors have severally been meeting with the President on how to resolve the festering crisis in the PDP.
They had also demanded that the President ensure the removal of 'factional chairman' of the party, Bamanga Tukur and stop the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from going after the former Kwara state governor, Bukola Saraki or any of their members.
Fielding questions from journalists at the Presidential Villa after the meeting with the President on Monday, Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Godswill Akpabio said that during the reconciliation talks, both parties agreed that the President’s right to contest in 2015 was not negotiable.
He said the other two demands were still undergoing processes and would be resolved very soon since the talks will continue on October 7th.
“That is why I said that the processes are on and of course on the issue of 2015, both sides agreed that it wasn’t an issue for discussion because every single person has a right to have ambition. Some of the governors may have ambition like I have ambition to go to Senate and you can’t discuss anything about another person’s ambition. You are the only person that can discuss your own ambition. Ambition is personal. So both parties agreed to that.
“In all other issues, we have put in place methodologies of settling them and of course it’s a process issue. Process is on. It was in the first place an internal issue of the PDP and so we are going to settle it internally and if you want to know how it is going to be settled, then you have to leave being a journalist to join the PDP family,” Akpabio said.
He added: “Well. What you heard is true. The PDP family is coming back together. We have started a process of total reconciliation and of course you know the house is very large very robust and PDP is very entrenched and there is no way we can have internal wrangling without being able to resolve. So, clearly speaking it was just a family disagreement and the processes are in place now to bring everybody on board and Nigerians are very happy.”
Dailytimes