CITING respect for President Goodluck Jonathan, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State who is laying claim to the chairmanship of the Nigeria Goverors Forum (NGF) has postponed the meeting of the forum earlier scheduled to hold Thursday night, according to a source.
Meanwhile, Amaechi Wednesday in Abuja said all governors including Jang voted at the election which produced him as chairman of the forum, adding that it therefore smacked of anti-democratic tendencies on the part of those supporting Jang as the chairman of the NGF after he lost at the poll.
"There will be a meeting of Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF) on Wednesday June 26, 2013," Chidinma Onyenalim, an aide to Governor Amaechi had announced on Monday at 8.00 p.m. prompt. To be held at the Rivers State Governor's Lodge, No. 5 Justice Mohammed Bello Street, Asokoro, Abuja."
But the meeting has now been postponed after the Presidency went on to announce a presidential dinner with governors on the same date, at the same time, and at Abuja.
Sources in Abuja revealed that the NGF governors loyal to Amaechi believe that they would be undermining the office of the President should the 19 of them proceed with the meeting,
"We are not at war with Jonathan," a source said. "We want to prove to him that the NGF battle is not personal; it is about the sanctity of the ballot and democracy."
The postponed meeting of the NGF is the first that Amaechi, will be convening.
However, Jang, who has been clinging to the chairmanship of the group since losing the election by 16 to 19 votes, held a meeting of governors sympathetic to him on June 16, 2013, to discuss "the impasse arising from the Federal Allocation Account Committee Meeting."
Amaechi, who spoke at a symposium on Review of the 1999 Constitution and its impact on the much needed judicial reforms organised by the Rule of Law Foundation (RLF) said all the governors, who attended the meeting where he was elected as chairman of NGF, agreed to participate in the election.
Personalities at the symposium were the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, former Chief Justices of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, Justice Dahiru Musdapher and Justice Sylvester Nguta of the Supreme Court. Amaechi said even Jang voted in the election and wondered why he chose to vote if he had been endorsed as he claimed.
He said: "NBA cannot afford to lose its voice. NBA has lost its voice. For NBA to see a free and fair election where 35 governors that govern 35 states and make decisions for hundreds of million of people and for NBA to say 'if you cannot organise yourselves desolve. Then you have lost your voice.
"I want to say it and I want to be put on record, anyone who supports the Jang faction is undemocratic. We chose who should be the returning officer. We appointed our director general to be the returning officer for the election. And we voted. Everybody voted including Jang. In fact, Jang was among the first persons to vote. And when I won, they were there. We were to commence voting for the chairmanship when my brother and colleague from Akwa Ibom got up and said there was a document I had where 19 governors had signed for us. And Jang said northern governors forum supported him but the same northern governors voted and they should have therefore voted for him. He said PDP governors supported him at a meeting before the election, so they should have voted for him. What Jang is leading is another faction of PDP governors forum and not the NGF, because there are no two governors fora
"Therefore anyone, NBA or government that supports Jang's faction is undemocratic.
"Let us put it on record that the way things are going, 2015 we should be careful it does not end in this manner where people who win democratic election and those in power will not accept the result of a free and fair election. My Lords be prepared because we shall soon be coming to your court.
"We must defend democracy. We must defend Nigeria because we don't have any other country.
"We have started again with tyranny and oppression. We must be prepared as a people to defend our rights. We must be prepared as a people to hold government accountable.
"We must be prepared to demand for accountability."
The Guardian