President Jonathan to step down Akpabio has NGF Chairman

CRISES rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP may have deepened as another trouble is said to be brewing with governors elected on the platform of the party mounting pressure on its Chairman and governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio to resign as a matter of urgency like the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu.
Vanguard gathered yesterday that as part of moves to push their case, some of the PDP governors stormed the Presidential Villa to report Akpabio to the leader of the party, President Goddluck Jonathan over the governor’s refusal to call for a meeting of the PDP governors where salient decisions would have been taken in unison before the

enlarged and general meeting of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF.
According to sources, the purported sin of Akpabio was his alleged refusal to call for a meeting of PDP governors prior to the Monday meeting of the NGF at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja.
The sources said further that Governor Olusegun Mimiko was being tipped by the governors to take over from Akpabio.
The National Chairman of the party, Muazu as well as the Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT Chief Tony Anenih had both resigned from their positions Wednesday.
It was also gathered that Akpabio attended the meeting presided over by the Chairman of NGF and governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi when the aggrieved governors who formed a faction since 2013 with Governor Jonah Jang as chairman failed to agree to sheathe their swords.
“The Governors on Wednesday reported Governor Godswill Akpabio to the president that he must call for a meeting of PDP governors or forced to resign, they are not happy with him that he attended the meeting where he sat close to governor i Amaechi without letting other governors knowing the issues that had been on ground. The governors would have first met and taken a common position before the meeting.”
According to the source, the governors complained that the NGF meeting should have been put on hold until after the swearing in of the new governors to enable all of them participate in the election of their new chairman.
At the Monday meeting, Governor Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari of Zamfara who had been the NGF Vice Chairman was elected chairman for a period of one year from May 2015 to May 2016 through consensus, as happened when he was elected as Amaechi’s deputy in 2013.
Source told Vanguard that Akpabio played a fast one on the outgoing governors especially Liyel Imoke of Cross River and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta as he was the only one who attended with his own governor- elect, Udom Emmanuel.
According to the source, the PDP governors were unhappy that the All Progressives Congress, APC, governors used the occasion to lam-bast the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, asking her to as a matter of urgency account for alleged $20 billion Excess Crude money.