The five governors in the South South geo-political zone elected on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over security issues in their area.
The resurgence of militants’ attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the region especially in Delta State and the menace of armed herdsmen, who have been attacking farming communities, were condemned by the governors, who said they would take the issues up with the president.
They, however, did not state the time the meeting will hold at a briefing with reporters in Asaba, the Delta State capital after a meeting yesterday, attended by all of them.
Host Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who briefed reporters on the outcome of the meeting, was joined by Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Ben Ayade (Cross Rivers).
Okowa said the meeting also discussed how the PDP would do well in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State – which is the only state controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South South.
According to Okowa: “We discussed issues concerning our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You will recall that our convention has been fixed to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on May 21 and we are putting plans in place for that convention.
“The Chairman of the committee for the convention is Governor Wike of Rivers State and we use this medium to call on all our supporters and members of the PDP to desist from any form of crisis before, during and after the convention, we accepted as a party and the leadership of the party agreed that the national convention should hold at Port Harcourt. We stand by that resolution.
”We tried to map out strategies in order to strengthen the PDP in Edo State”.
When asked by reporters to disclose the strategies they took to recapture the state from the APC, Gov. Okowa said: “We will not let the cat out of the bag because we are putting things in place at the moment”.
