Lamido, Nyako, others want Shagari to intervene in PDP crisis

Posted by admin Adamawa, Jigawa, Kano, Presidency, Shehu Aliyu Shagari (1979-83), State News Wednesday, July 31st, 2013

BY SONI DANIEL, REGIONAL EDITOR, NORTH

Four Northern governors, who are still aggrieved over certain developments in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Tuesday, took their grievances to former President Shehu Shagari, pleading with him to intervene.

The governors, who began their meeting with Shagari at about 11:45 am, were led by the state governor, Aliyu Wamakko.

His visitors were Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State.

Vanguard learnt that the fifth governor, Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, who would had been part of the delegation, had travelled to Saudi Arabia.

The governors are said to have pleaded with Shagari to prevail on President Goodluck Jonathan to take urgent steps to salvage the party and the nation from certain perilous individuals and agencies bent on derailing the democratic gains already attained by the nation.

The governors, who were summoned for talks with President Jonathan at the weekend, appeared to still be upset by the rumoured ambition of Jonathan to run for a second term in 2015.

The plan, according to informed sources, is said to run against the interest of the north to present a consensus candidate for the top post.

The northern governors are said to be angry that Jonathan was trying to renege on a gentleman’s agreement he had with them in 2010 to serve only a term, after completing the remaining tenure of late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua.

But addressing newsmen after the meeting, Adamawa governor, Murtala Nyako, explained that they were in Sokoto to brief the former President on the state of affairs in the country and seek his advice on how to move the nation forward.

Nyako said: “We briefed the elder statesman on the political development in the country and what we think should be done in the interest of the generality of the people”.

The five governors had already paid similar visits to former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalam Abubakar, during which they tabled some complaints against the leadership of the administration and the PDP.

Before then, they had paid a solidarity visit to their Rivers State counterpart and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Amaechi, in Port Harcourt, during which they narrowly escaped the wrath of aggrieved politicians who confronted them with stones and placards.

Worried that the face-off with the northern governors, who are all serving out their last tenure of office, could affect the fortunes of the party in the next election, President Jonathan on Saturday summoned them to a crucial meeting at the Villa to sort out grey areas.

-Vanguardwp_posts