20th October, 2014
President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday night met behind closed doors with PDP governors at the Presidential Vila, Abuja.
Details of discussions at the meeting, which ended in the early hours of Monday, were not made public.
However, some governors said the discussions centred on the forthcoming party primary elections and repositioning of the party.
Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina state said that the meeting evaluated strategies for a successful conduct of the primary elections.
The Deputy Governor of Kogi, Mr Yomi Awoniyi, described the meeting as cordial and fruitful.
“Mr President called the PDP governors and we all had a very good meeting, which was all about repositioning the party to serve the citizens very well.
“It was a very cordial meeting and the resolutions reached would be made public by the appropriate quarters,” Awoniyi said.
Governor Theodore Orji of Abia said: “we discussed our party and the primaries that will soon come.
“We looked at how to fortify our party to avoid rancour or infighting to enable us do very well both in the primaries and general elections in 2015”.
Orji said the disagreement between the governors and the party’s national leadership over the endorsement of candidates at the state level did not come up for discussion.
He said that the party’s governorship candidates would emerge through free and transparent primaries contrary to reports of endorsements in the media.
Meanwhile, Gov. Bala Ngilari of Adamawa has described the political atmosphere in the state as stable, saying the people were happy with the delivery of justice in his case.
“The political situation in Adamawa is very stable, I can assure you, the people are very happy. You know, the common man appreciates when justice is done at all times. They are very happy; you can do your independent verification.
“All the reported noise in some quarters that heavens will fall because of my swearing-in, nothing like that has happened.
“I thank the people of Adamawa for their massive support and we promise to keep faith with them,” Ngilari told reporters.
The governor said the executive and legislative arms of the state government were not at loggerheads and added that the relationship among the three arms of government in was cordial.
NAN recalls that Ngilari was sworn in as governor on Oct. 8 following an order of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which voided his purported resignation.
Among the governors at the meeting were Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo State), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi State), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe State) and Martin Elechi (Ebonyi).
Others are Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Saidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) , Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Umar Garba (Acting Governor of Taraba) as well as the deputy governors of Sokoto and Nasarawa states.