The Chairman of the newly-formed Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, Governor Godswil Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, has said that the new body is now a major organ of the party in line with ongoing efforts to unite and reposition it.
Speaking with newsmen in the early hours of Monday after the PDP governors’ meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan and the party leadership at the State House, Abuja, Akpabio insisted that the formation of the PDPGF was a step in the right direction.
While contending that the PDPGF will not compete with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, he said it will rather hasten decision making process since other parties such as the Action Congress of Nigeria and the All Nigeria Peoples Party also have similar bodies.
Akpabio said: “The Peoples Democratic Party has decided to do evaluation and decided that there was need for us to restrategise in order to make the party stronger.
“We met as governors of our dear party and in the presence of our leaders, the President, the Vice President and top functionaries of the PDP, including the chairman of the party and the Secretary of the Board of Trustees and unanimously I was selected by my colleagues and by the leadership of the party to head the PDP Governors’ Forum.
“This is a new Forum.
“It becomes the major organ of the party.
“The governors of the PDP will now meet and deliberate on issues bothering them.
“This is not in competition with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum because the NGF caters for issues that affect the generality of all governors of the 36 states of the federation.
“This Forum will only take cognisance of the interest of only PDP governors and I think this is a step in the right direction.
“We are trying to unify the party in its entirety and it starts with the field marshals at the state level, who are the PDP governors and of course collectively we formed government at the national level.”
Reacting to an allege plan to remove Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State as the chairman of the NGF at the last meeting, Akpabio said: “What you heard was a total misinformation.
“That was rumour.
“That was not what we discussed at the last NGF meeting.”
He explained that Amaechi’s tenure expires in April 2013, adding: “We cannot sit down and plan the impeachment of a colleague.
“We don’t do that kind of thing.”
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