SAN FRANCISCO, September 03, (THEWILL) – President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Tuesday night (local time) held a “private meeting” with the Bamanga Tukur-led faction of the party as well as state governors elected under the party’s platform that are loyal to the faction.
The meeting started at about 9.pm inside the presidential villa.
Also at the meeting, which was a continuation of Sunday’s meeting but without the rebel governors who factionalised the party, were the faction’s Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, newly elected Deputy Chairman, Prince Uche Sekondus, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak.
It was not clear as at press time if Chief Tony Anenih, the faction’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, had joined the meeting.
The Governors in attendance included Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna), Gabriel Suswam (Benue), Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi) and Idris Wada (Kogi).
THEWILL gathered that the ongoing crisis rocking the ruling political party and the demands of the rebel influential members of the splinter group topped the agenda of the “private meeting.’
The Abubakar Baraje faction, which addresses itself as the “The New PDP” had pulled out of Tuesday’s earlier scheduled meeting with the President and the Tukur faction, on the pretext that it had to consult widely with members of the faction.
Amongst the faction’s demands are the resignation of Tukur, the convening of fresh national convention, recalling from suspension Governor Rotimi Amaechi and other suspended party members from Rivers State, halting the harassment and intimidation of state governors and their officials by the EFCC and the ICPC, and allowing the governors full control of the state structures of their party amongst other demands.
