Five of the seven aggrieved governors of the
Peoples Democratic Party on Monday met
behind closed doors with former President
Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The meeting which lasted about two hours
took place barely 13 hours after policemen
from the Asokoro Area Command in Abuja
briefly disrupted the governors’ talks at the
Kano State Governor’s Lodge in the nation’s
capital.
The governors that met with Obasanjo were
Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); Babangida Aliyu
(Niger); Rabiu Kwakwanso (Kano); Sule
Lamido (Jigawa); and Murtala Nyako
(Adamawa).
Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed of Kwara State
and his Sokoto State counterpart, Aliyu
Wammako, were however absent.
Journalists were barred from the Hilltop
residence of the ex-President where the
meeting, which is a continuation of the rebel
governors’ consultations on how to end their
disagreements with President Goodluck
Jonathan and the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP,
was held.
They had previously met with Obasanjo who
chairs the PDP Elders Committee which is
trying to reconcile the parties . They also
had talks with former Heads of State, Generals
Absulsami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.
It was gathered that the rebel governors
updated the former President on the latest
developments in their efforts to end the face-
off with Jonathan and the PDP leadership.
At about 1:50pm, Amaechi drove the other
governors in an unmarked black BMW jeep out
of the expansive mansion in a convoy of other
vehicles.
Earlier, the Rivers State governor had
interrupted Aliyu, who was addressing
journalists on their Abeokuta mission .
The journalists had asked Aliyu if they came
to inform Obasanjo about their alleged
decision to leave the PDP.
Amaechi, in response to the question, asked,
“Who told you that?”
But Aliyu continued , saying “I don’t know
about that. It’s just a speculation.”
He added that their meeting with Obasanjo
was part of their consultations with the elders
of the party.
Aliyu however expressed hope that the
disagreements between them and the
President would soon be resolved.
He added that they had been having
discussions with Jonathan on the current
face-off.
The governor said, “You may recall that when
issues started, we consulted our elders, so this
is part of the consultation; more so that we
are coming to the resolution of the matter .
“We’ve been discussing with the President
about these issues and we believe after the
lull caused by the pilgrimage to Mecca, we
will continue from where we stopped. So, we
needed to consult again to find out if there is
any variable that has intervened and we are
very happy things are going normal.”
It was further learnt that the governors had
scheduled separate meetings with other former
Heads of State, including Gen. Yakubu
Gowon .
Meanwhile, some National Assembly
members and New PDP leaders from Rivers
State were on Monday held up on an aircraft
at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport,
Abuja.
This followed the grounding of the aircraft,
which was conveying them to Port Harcourt,
based on instructions from aviation
authorities.
It was gathered that the chartered aircraft had
on board, Senator Magnus Abbe, members of
the House of Representatives and the Deputy
National Chairman of the New PDP, Dr. Sam
Jaja.
Abbe,who confirmed the development, said he
and his colleagues were perplexed about the
turn of events.
He said, “We boarded the aircraft and were
about to take off when we were told that the
plane could not take off based on orders from
above.
“We tried to find out where the order came
from but nobody talked to us. It is
unfortunate that we have degenerated to the
level of playing politics with transportation.”
He explained that they were on their way to
Port Harcourt to join Amaechi in hosting
officials of the All Progressives Congress.
A senior official of the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria, who pleaded for
anonymity said, “The aircraft meant to convey
them was grounded, but I cannot tell you why.
“However, this has nothing to do with FAAN
for in this context, it is not our business to
ground (any) aircraft.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for aviation
parastatals, Mr. Yakubu Dati, said the aircraft
might have been grounded for safety reasons.
He said those on board the grounded aircraft
took another to Port Harcourt.
He said, “There was a problem with the other
plane that they boarded; so they took another
plane and left.
“If you go and charter a vehicle and it can’t
move, and you go to the next one and charter
it, is there anything wrong with that? So check
those angles.
“Any problem can arise. This is why we ensure
that people follow regulations. You will recall
that one of the issues that affected Amaechi’s
plane is because there were issues with that
aircraft’s manifest.
“And when the Associated Airlines flight had
an accident, what saved us was that there
was a manifest. If not we wouldn’t have
known who was on the flight. So there could
be one issue or the other.”
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