BIG TROUBLE! Lamido, Dickson, Other Govs Shun Jonathan’s Campaign Inauguration

There was apprehension among members of the Peoples
Democratic Party in Abuja following the absence of some of
the governors of the party at the inauguration of the
Presidential Campaign Organisation of the party in Abuja on
Tuesday.

The organisation, headed by a former National Chairman of
the party, Sen. Amadu Ali, is saddled with the responsibility
of selling the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan
and his deputy, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, to Nigerians for the
February 14 presidential election.

Only a handful of the governors were in attendance, while
about half of them did not show up for the occasion.

Among the governors at the event were Emmanuel
Uduaghan(Delta), Gabriel Suswam(Benue), Isa Yuguda
(Bauchi), James Ngilari (Adamawa), Babangida Aliyu(Niger)
and Ibrahim Dankwambo( Gombe State).

However, governors Theodore Orji(Abia), Dr. Olusegun
Mimiko(Ondo), Sullivan Chime(Enugu), Seriake Dickson
(Bayelsa), Martin Elechi(Enugu) were absent from the
inauguration.

Also not part of the inauguration were Idris Wada(Kogi),
Ibrahim Shema(Katsina), Sule Lamido(Jigawa) and Jonah
Jang(Plateau).

One of our correspondents saw many of the bigwigs from
the party discussing the developments, especially when
some of the absentee governors were put in charge of the
campaign in their zones

Lamido is saddled with the responsibility of coordinating the presidential campaign in the North-West, while Mimiko is in charge of South-West and Orji, South-East.

No reason was given for the absence of the governors.

However, the President later met behind closed doors with
the PDP governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting, which was also attended by ministers from
states where there are no PDP governors, was meant to
strategise ahead of the commencement of the presidential
campaign.