Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party have asked President Goodluck Jonathan to sack some ministers over irreconcilable political differences with them (governors).
The governors made the demand during their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday night.
Before the governors went to the Villa, they had met at the Kwara State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, where they discussed the ongoing voter registration and the outcome of the PDP primaries across the states.
One of the governors told our correspondent on Wednesday that they discussed what to do with some ministers from their states, whom they considered “troublesome.”
He mentioned Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye (Commerce and Industry); Elder Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta); Senator Bala Mohammed (Federal Capital Territory) and Chief Kenneth Gbagi ( Education) as some of such ministers.
Martins-Kuye is from Ogun State; Orubebe and Gbagi, Delta State ; and Mohammed, Bauchi State.
Our correspondent learnt that governors of the home states of the above mentioned ministers were displeased with the roles they allegedly played during the state, governorship and National Assembly primaries in their states.
It was gathered that the governors told the President that since they had delivered their respective states to him during Thursday’s PDP presidential primaries, he (Jonathan) should reciprocate by allowing them to nominate new ministers from their states. Also, Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State reportedly said he was not comfortable with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mallam Yayale Ahmed.
According to our source, Yuguda allegedly told his colleagues that the disagreement between him and the FCT minister led to the ‘low’ performance of the President in his state. Forty-six delegates from Bauchi voted for Jonathan during the presidential primaries while 44 cast their votes in favour of a former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Before going to the Villa, the chairman of the Governors Forum, who is also the governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, had told journalists that the PDP governors were in support of the resignation of Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo as the PDP national chairman.
He also said they welcomed the assumption of office of Dr. Haliru Mohammed as acting chairman.
However, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ima Niboro, described the report as ‘an outright lie’ in a text message sent to our correspondent. “The meeting with the governor was on Monday night. They (governors) came to congratulate the president, and assure him of their 100 per cent support in the forthcoming elections. There was no talk of sacking ministers. They are lies, pure and simple.”
But a source in the Presidency insisted the meeting took place but that Jonathan was non-committal. He only promised to speak with the ministers on the need to cooperate with their governors, the source said.
When contacted, the Special Adviser (Media) to the FCT minister, Nosike Ogbuenyi, said he would not want to believe that the governor made the demand, stressing that the relationship between Mohammed and Yuguda “was not that bad”.
“I don’t want to believe that the governor made such a demand, but if he did, the President is an experienced leader with a large heart and he is not bound by the governor’s demand. The minister has been working, serving the people and his appointment was not based on the personal sentiments of one person,” he said.
Responding to our correspondents’ enquiries, an aide to Martins-Kuye, Prince Dosunmu, said, “I don’t think I will be able to speak to any journalist on the telephone. If I see you I will able to say something.”
Meanwhile, Mohammed said that the leadership of the PDP was studying the petitions submitted by aggrieved candidates in the just concluded party primaries. The Acting Chairman assured members that the names of those who won at the party’s primaries would not be changed without a good reason.
He spoke on Wednesday when he received members of the President Primaries Electoral panel led by Prof. Tunde Adeniran.
Mohammed said that if the party could order a rerun in the governorship primaries in Akwa-Ibom, then members of the PDP should know that the leadership of the party would not shy away from doing the right thing.
He said, “Apart from few states where we have petitions, all our results are ready.
“We have ordered a rerun of the primaries in Akwa Ibom State. This shows that we are ready to look at these results again and take decisions without fear or favour and no matter whose ox is gored.
“So, I am calling on all members of our party to give us the chance as we are going about scrutinising your petitions. Every petition will be given due consideration and decisions will be made based on justice and fairplay.
“Nobody will be short-changed and I can assure you that the results we gave here and others that came from other committees we set will not be changed without a cogent and variable reason.
“No results will be cancelled except there is verifiable reason.”
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