Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 23 Presidential election, Atiku Abubakar, and 13 governors of the party are absent at the ongoing 85th (Emergency) National Executive Committee (NEC) Meeting of the party in Abuja.
Besides Atiku, other 13 PDP governors that failed to show up at Wednesday NEC Meeting are those of: Benue, Sokoto, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Gombe, Taraba and Kwara.
BusinessDay reports that none of the governors sent their representatives to the NEC meeting, neither did they send written apologies.
The development provoked the ire of a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and former governor of Niger State, Babagida Aliyu, when he asked to be given the microphone when the Secretary of BoT, Adolphus Wabara was called upon to give his remarks.
Taking the mic, Aliyu described the development as an embarrassment to the party, even as he called for sanctions for habitual absentees at the party’s NEC meeting.
“I think we must at the end of the day, really come out and say something and do something for those members who habitually are absent in our meetings. It sends the wrong signals to the outside world. In addition, while the governors are not here, the former governors are here,” he stated.
But defending the absence of Atiku and the governors, PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, attributed the development to the supplementary elections, which will hold across some states of the Federation this Saturday.
He said: “Obviously, we are in election season. So you can’t blame anybody. We are in election season. Most of the states are having re-run, if not for governor but for State or National Assembly. So, we don’t have anybody to blame at all”.
As of the time of filing this report, the opening session has ended and the NEC is currently on closed door session.
Details later….
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
