 |
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.”
No comments:
Post a Comment