Aliyu, 10 absent from PDP govs' meeting

The Peoples Democratic Party Governors' Forum met in Abuja on Wednesday, with 11 governors in the party's failing to show up.

23 governors  out of the total 36 are from the PDP.

The paucity of attendance forced the shift in the timing of the meeting from 3pm to 8 pm, but that did notalter much.

had to be shifted to 8pm when information got to its organisers   that majority of the governors might not attend.

At 8pm, the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, left the Akwa Ibom State Governor's Lodge in Asokoro District, Abuja.

He had planned to brief the party governors had to leave  due to poor attendance by the governors on the recent moves to reconcile divergent interests in the party.

Tukur was said to have come with the intention of briefing the governors on the modalities he  had considered before naming members of the party's National Reconciliation Committee.

The majority of the governors and other stakeholders were said to have rejected  the appointment of the Governor of Bayelsa  State, Mr. Seriake Dickson,  as the chairman of the committee.

Absent at the meeting  were governors  of Kano, Jigawa,  Adamawa, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba, Rivers, Cross River , Ebonyi, Bauchi and Kebbi.

The meeting was however attended by  Dickson and his counterparts in Delta, Benue, Kogi, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Katisna and Abia states.  Governors of Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Gombe states  sent their deputies.

Apart from the reconciliation matter, other issues on the agenda at the meeting were the forthcoming national convention of the party and the November 16 governorship election in Anambra State.

At the end of the meeting, Akwa Ibom State Governor and  Chairman of the PDP Governors' Forum,  Chief Godswill Akpabio,  said the meeting deliberated on issues like the convention and the crisis in the Rivers State House  of Assembly.

Akpabio said the governors would support Tukur by mobilising delegates  for  the convention.

Describing   what happened in the Rivers State House of Assembly  as 'unfortunate,'  he  appealed  to 'the two warring groups to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign.'

He said the next meeting of the PDP GF would hold in Bayelsa State.

Akpabio said that the  governors decided to rotate their meetings in order to learn from themselves.

He attributed the poor attendance recorded at the meeting to late information sent to the governors, adding that the meeting was an emergency one.

At the end of the meeting, the governors went to the Presidential Villa  to confer with President Goodluck Jonathan.