Akpabio insists aggrieved governors agree to shelve demand on Jonathan’s 2015 ambition

Mr. Akpabio says it was agreed that the president should not be
deprived of his right to vote and be voted for.
The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic PartyGovernors Forum, and
governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, Monday insisted that
the seven aggrieved governors loyal to the Abubakar Baraje faction of
the party agreed to drop one of their demands: the one requesting
President Goodluck Jonathan to drop his 2015 re-election ambition.
The governors, who have met on several occasions with Mr. Jonathan,
the last one, being Sunday's meeting at the presidential villa, had
demanded that the President forgets his 2015 ambition.
They also want Bamanga Tukur removed as national chairman of the
party, while state working committees in Adamawa and Rivers states
should consist of appointees loyal to Governors Murtala Nyako and
Rotimi Amaechi respectively.
Mr. Akpabio who was fielding questions from journalists at the
Presidential Villa after a meeting with the President Monday stated
that both parties agreed that the President's right to contest in 2015
was not negotiable.
Three of the seven governors who spoke to us earlier however said, the
president asked for more time to reflect on the demand before the next
meeting on October 7.
"That is why I said that the processes are on and of course on the
issue of 2015, both sides agreed that it wasn't an issue for
discussion because every single person has a right to have ambition.
Some of the governors may have ambition like I have ambition to go to
Senate and you can't discuss anything about another person's ambition.
You are the only person that can discuss your own ambition. Ambition
is personal. So both parties agreed to that," Mr. Akpabio said.
The Akwa Ibom Governor said the meeting also put in place
methodologies of settling most of the problems, adding that he was
confident the PDP would come out of the crisis stronger.
"The PDP family is coming back together. We have started a process of
total reconciliation and of course you know the house is very large,
very robust and PDP is very entrenched and there is no way we can have
internal wrangling without being able to resolve. So, clearly speaking
it was just a family disagreement and the processes are in place now
to bring everybody on board and Nigerians are very happy," he said