Akpabio insists aggrieved governors agree to shelve demand on Jonathan’s 2015 ambition

Mr. Akpabio says it was agreed that the president should not be deprived of his right to vote and be voted for.

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum, and governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, Monday insisted that the seven aggrieved governors loyal to the Abubakar Baraje faction of the party agreed to drop one of their demands: the one requesting President Goodluck Jonathan to drop his 2015 re-election ambition.

The governors, who have met on several occasions with Mr. Jonathan, the last one, being Sunday's meeting at the presidential villa, had demanded that the President forgets his 2015 ambition.

They also want Bamanga Tukur removed as national chairman of the party, while state working committees in Adamawa and Rivers states should consist of appointees loyal to Governors Murtala Nyako and Rotimi Amaechi respectively.

Mr. Akpabio who was fielding questions from journalists at the Presidential Villa after a meeting with the President Monday stated that both parties agreed that the President's right to contest in 2015 was not negotiable.

Three of the seven governors who spoke to us earlier however said, the president asked for more time to reflect on the demand before the next meeting on October 7.

"That is why I said that the processes are on and of course on the issue of 2015, both sides agreed that it wasn't an issue for discussion because every single person has a right to have ambition.

Some of the governors may have ambition like I have ambition to go to Senate and you can't discuss anything about another person's ambition. You are the only person that can discuss your own ambition. Ambition is personal. So both parties agreed to that," Mr. Akpabio said.

The Akwa Ibom Governor said the meeting also put in place methodologies of settling most of the problems, adding that he was confident the PDP would come out of the crisis stronger.

"The PDP family is coming back together. We have started a process of total reconciliation and of course you know the house is very large, very robust and PDP is very entrenched and there is no way we can have internal wrangling without being able to resolve. So, clearly speaking it was just a family disagreement and the processes are in place now to bring everybody on board and Nigerians are very happy," he said