Presidency steps up anti-Amaechi battle

Governors are facing pressure from the Presidency, which is asking them to dump Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman Rotimi Amaechi, who is interested in keeping the seat.

It was not sure last night whether the election will hold on Thursday, as widely speculated.

Governors are being asked to back a proposal that the election should hold at the Presidential Villa, The Nation learnt yesterday.

Besides, some governors have been coerced into signing a “strange voting sheet” to secure their pledge to vote against Amaechi.

The Presidency is believed to have agreed to dump Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State for Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State as its anointed candidate to replace Amaechi.

Unsure of the loyalty of the 23 PDP governors, forces in the Presidency are pushing for open ballot instead of secret ballot system.

The Presidency is said to have been rattled by the continued support enjoyed by Amaechi among his colleagues.

A source said: “This unprecedented move of collecting signatures was decided upon after all the pressure put on most of the pro-Amaechi governors to dump him failed.”

The execution of the plan began last Thursday after the National Economic Council meeting in Abuja when some of the governors were ambushed for the ‘signing ceremony’ in the Villa, the source said. Coordinating the signing were two governors Akpabio – one from the Southsouth and the other from the Middle Belt.

The strategy is to conduct the voting in the Villa by inviting the governors individually and demanding their signatures in support of the new candidate.

For their signatures each governor was promised protection from EFCC investigation, patronage from the Federal Government in various forms and assurances that their states be spared from a state of emergency.

“The 2015 re-election was also dangled before the governors that need re-election,” the source claimed.

Investigations revealed that the last-minute decision to dump Shema for Yuguda made the Presidency to adopt “unorthodox method”.

“Shema was dumped after President Goodluck Jonathan was advised that his (Shema’s) candidacy would ‘not fly’.

A third source spoke of “a governor who reported to his state caucus confirming that some of his colleagues who signed were one from the Northwest; one from Northcentral and the last from the Northeast.

“Some of the governors pointedly refused to sign and pleaded for some time to reflect on the issues,” he said.

The said governor reportedly “revealed the details of the circumstances and how almost all the governors have been complaining about the intimidation and harassment and indeed blackmail from the Presidency in order to make them dump Amaechi”.

Some forces in the Presidency have been trying to persuade Amaechi to accept the Villa option but those in support of the Rivers State governor have opposed it.

The plan, it was learnt, is to fix a meeting of the governors with the Presidency for the Villa and coerce the NGF to hold its session there.

But pro-Amaechi governors are insisting on using either the Rivers Governor’s Lodge in Abuja or the NGF Secretariat for the poll.

A pro-Amaechi governor said: “There is no provision for NGF meeting at the Presidential Villa. We won’t allow anybody to intimidate the governors. Articles 2 and 9 of the NGF Constitution are explicit on the secretariat of the Forum.”

source: the nation