Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has floored President Goodluck Jonathan on his way to securing his re-election as the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
Amaechi on Friday scored 19 votes to defeat the Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, the eventual candidate of Jonathan and the Presidency, on his way to retaining his seat.
Jang scored 16 votes.
Thirty-five of the 36 states governors were present at the meeting of the NGF in Abuja, where the election was held.
Only the Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam, was absent.
The initial candidates of the Presidency, Governors Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State, stepped down at the last minute.
Jang was not in contention for the race until Thursday night.
Jonathan had plotted to unseat Amaechi over a face-off.
The Presidency believed Amaechi, elected on the same Peoples Democratic Party platform as Jonathan, was too critical of the President.
Amaechi had explained that as the chairman of the NGF, he was not serving just the PDP but all parties and as such his views must reflect those of the majority.
Jonathan had left for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the African Union Summit before the conclusion of the election.
The President had made efforts to get the commitment of the governors in the bid to unseat Amaechi but could not muster the 20 votes he was targeting.
Some governors, including Geidam and Dr. Abdulfatah of Kwara State were forced to sign the paper seeking to unseat Amaechi.
Some were said to have been scared with security reports indicting them of corrupt practices.
Sources within the NGF, however, told The Eagle Online that the reelection of Amaechi has divided the Forum.
Some of the new alliances formed are said to be along the West and the North on the one hand and the North, South South and South East on the other.
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