Governors’ Forum: Jang faction rejects reconciliation with Amaechi group

  The crisis within the Nigerian Governors Forum appears not to be over as the faction loyal to outgoing Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau has denied any reconciliation with the Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State led Forum.

The NGF had met Tuesday in Abuja with about 20 governors including some deputies attending.

Tuesday’s meeting also saw the emergence of the Governor of Zamfara State, Abdualziz Yari, as the new chairman of the forum.

However, in a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday and signed by the Secretary and Administrator of the Forum, Osaro Onaiwu, the Jang faction stated that any such reconciliation attempt was futile as a majority of the governors will be out of office in a matter of days and therefore should leave issues of reconciliation, reorganization and a new Chairman to the incoming governors.

Some of the governors loyal to the Jang faction such as Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, Isa Yuguda of Bauchi and Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta attended Tuesday’s meeting which held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja.

Mr. Onaiwu’s statement said the purported reconciliation was a selfish attempt by a “group of governors to force new leadership of the forum on the in-coming governors”.

The Governor of Bayesa state, Seriake Dickson, who also stayed away from Tuesday’s meeting had earlier issued a statement expressing his rejection of the selection of a new chairman for the NGF.

He said election of new leadership should wait until after new governors elected on April 11 are sworn in on May 29.

The Jang faction noted in their statement that both Mr. Jang and his Deputy, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state “were visibly absent because they did not consider it a priority at this late hour to be part of a selfish project”.

Outgoing Chairman of the NGF, and the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, had stated on Tuesday that "after over a year of bickering, the governors had now “reconciled and are United as a single umbrella association  of the 36 state governors of Nigeria”.

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