PDP crises: Jonathan holds closed-door meetings with OBJ, governors in Abuja

In a bid to resolve the crisis rocking the People’s Democratic Party, President Goodluck Jonathan reportedly held two separate high level meetings yesterday. The president first met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and then with 16 governors of the party with the aim of finding solutions to the problems that led to the further breaking apart of the party. According to reports, he first met behind closed doors with Obasanjo for about two hours in his official residence at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and then the governors, including four of the seven that are the arrowheads of the splinter group known as the new PDP. The four are Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara). The other governors in the Group of Seven are Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Sule Lamido (Jigawa) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers). The G-7 and a founding member, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had walked out of the PDP special convention in Abuja on Saturday and consequently, announced the formation of the new PDP. Also in the faction are a former Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Kawu Baraje; a suspended National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; and a former National Deputy National Chairman, Dr. Sam Jaja. They were said to have been miffed by the way Dr. Bamanga Tukur and the Presidency had been running the party to the exclusion of other critical stakeholders. Less than 24 hours after the splinter group emerged, Obasanjo, who did not attend the special national convention at the Eagles Square, Abuja, showed up at the Presidential Villa. The President, former President, Yayi and the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, thereafter retired into the President’s residence “for lunch.” As part of efforts to resolve the crisis, Obasanjo had in August met with PDP governors inside the Presidential Villa for two days.The meeting did not however yield any positive result. Hours after meeting with the former President and Yayi, Jonathan also held a crucial meeting with Governors Aliyu, Kwankwaso, Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Nyako (Adamawa), Idris Wada (Kogi), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), and Ahmed. Others were Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Ramalan Yero (Kaduna), Garba Umar (Taraba Acting Governor), Seidu Dakingari (Kebbi), Theodore Orji (Abia), Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe) and Jonah Jang (Plateau). The PDP lawyer, Mr. Joe Gadzama (SAN), also attended the meeting alongside the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim and the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).