They accused Amaechi of refusing to cooperate with the President and making “inflammatory comments” but Amaechi swiftly fired back.
Jonathan's Special Adviser on Political Matter, Ahmed Gulak, accused Amaechi of showing utter disregard for the President by arriving late for Thursday’s mid-term dinner organised by Jonathan after the event had started.
At the dinner, the President’s bodyguards prevented Amaechi from going to have a handshake with Jonathan. The Presidency on Thursday explained that the action was taken for “security reasons.”
Gulak, who argued that Amaechi had refused to cooperate with the President, said, “An example of what I am talking about is the mid-term dinner held on Wednesday. You are aware that Governor Amaechi arrived well after the President was on his seat.
“That is the kind of thing we are talking about. Does that show cooperation with the President? That was unfair. Afterall, the programme’s commencement time was clearly stated on the invitation sent to him.
“How can he be coming there about 30 minutes or one hour after the programme has started?”
When asked further whether the Presidency also expected Amaechi to drop his chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Gulak claimed that Jonathan had no interest in whether the Rivers governor or his rival claimant, Jonah Jang of Plateau State, was in charge of forum.
He said, “As a member of the same party with the President, we expect a level of cooperation with the President. He should refrain from making inflammatory statements.”
Reacting, Amaechi said he had utmost respect for Jonathan and his office. Speaking through the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, the governor would he would never disrespect Jonathan.
“Governor Amaechi holds Mr. President in high esteem and will not at any point disrespect him; and this is obvious. The governor has repeatedly said that he respects Mr. President and the Office of the President of the country.
“Mr. Gulak is mischievous by his utterances against Governor Amaechi and this clearly shows that he has a hidden agenda known to only him.”
Meanwhile, there are indications that governors under the aegis of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum are planning a reconciliation meeting between Jonathan and Amaechi, to end their rift.
A PDP governor told Punch in Abuja on Thursday that the situation had become a source of concern, especially as Jonathan’s guards could prevent Amaechi from greeting him.
“We are still waiting for a formal meeting to be called. For now, all we have are chance meetings during informal gatherings like you saw during the presidential dinner.
“The problem now is that neither the Amaechi group nor those behind Jang are willing to shift ground on the issue of NGF chairman.
“With both sides unwilling to make compromises, it is difficult to make any serious progress.
“What happened during the dinner that made Amaechi and the governors backing him to leave is also a matter that is worth looking into. That dinner provided an opportunity (for Jonathan) to reach out but I think some overzealous aides ruined everything.
“Some of us had expected the kind of situation where you saw the President, the Speaker (of the Hosue of Representatives), whom some accuse of being too close to the opposition, and Amaechi sharing a joke, but that did not happen.”
A pro-Amaechi governor said, “The truth is known, people voted and Amaechi won. If anybody wants reconciliation, I think PDP should first apologise to Nigerians for this shameful act, then we can made progress.”
A Northern governor said, “Look, we have learnt our lessons and like one of our leaders, Gen. TY Danjuma said recently, we are going to make less noise and act more. We have talked too much on issues, the outcome of the Nigerian Governors Forum is the outcome of talking less and acting more.
“If you recall, we talked and talked about the marginalisation of the North, nothing was done. With the NGF election, we spoke clearly and people are paying attention.”
Read more: xclusivetalk.blogspot.com
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment