APC governors congratulate breakaway PDP governors

The APC governors' statement was signed by Fashola, Okorocha, and the
other APC governors.
Governors on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, have
praised the "courage and resilience" ofthe seven Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, governors whoon Saturday named a parallel leadership for
the party after rejecting the Bamanga Tukur-led executive.
The 11 APC governors said the fragmenting of the PDP, and the
emergence of a faction led by the party's former acting chairman,
Abubakar Baraje, was a "necessary and inevitable result of repressive
rule of the PDP".
"Recent events, first with the orchestrated crisis in theNigeria
Governors Forum (NGF), suspension and expulsion of PDP leaders,
including serving governors without fair hearing and complete
demonstration of lack of tolerance and respect for different opinions
are signposts of crisis that should unavoidably result in the split of
any organisation," the APC governors said in a statement onMonday.
Governors Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo
state, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state, Rochas Okorocha of Imo state and
Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa state signed the release.
Others are Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun
state, Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo, Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe and Abdulaziz
Yari of Zamfara states.
Opposition parties have hailed the emergence of the new faction of the
PDP which also has the backing of former vice president, Atiku
Abubakar.
The seven governors staged a humiliating walkout of thePDP special
convention which held on Saturday in Abuja,and was attended by
President Goodluck Jonathan.
They accused the president and Mr. Tukur of violating the party's
rules, and imposing their candidates on the party and being
dictatorial.
The crisis has proved the party's most embarrassing in years and has
been welcomed by the opposition and many Nigerians who blame the PDP
for Nigeria's woes.
Through Sunday and Monday, the presidency and top party officials
scrambled through several meetings to find a solution. A spokesperson
for the PDP, Olisa Metuh, said the crisis will be resolved by Tuesday.
The APC governors, under the banner of the Progressive Governors'
Forum, said the aggrieved PDP governors showed courage and stood up to
be counted among patriotic political leaders of Nigeria.
"It must no doubt be a conscious decision that must have been borne
out of commitment to make all the sacrifices needed to rescue our dear
nation from the current reign of terror and bad governance," they
said.
They pledged to work together with the PDP governors.
"We are under no illusion that our reality as a nation today calls for
both intra and inter party networking.
"Nigeria has outlived all dictatorships in the past and will
definitely outlive any present or latent, manifest orpotential
dictatorship," the governors said