Governors’ forum meeting deadlock

Category: News Published on Friday, 22 February 2013 05:00 Written by Fidelis Mac-Leva

A meeting of the 36 governors under the auspices of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum on Wednesday ended with disagreement over many issues.

This is even as the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Archdiocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah was invited to the meeting for undisclosed reasons and declined to respond to enquiries at the end of the session.

Although the meeting was expected to review the forum’s stance on the ongoing constitution amendment process and the country’s security challenges with a view to proffering solutions, it ended without agreeing on those issues.

Also expected to have formed the agenda of the meeting was the 2013 budget as well as the forum’s litigation against the Federal Government at the Supreme Court where the forum is challenging deductions from the Excess Crude Account to offset fuel subsidy.

However, Daily Trust gathered that deliberations on these issues were deferred due to differing views by the governors.

At the end of the over five hours meeting which held at the Rivers State governor’s lodge, the forum chairman, Rotimi Amaechi who expressed concern over the recent killings of health workers in Borno, Kano and Yobe states, read a terse statement: “the forum resolved that all the organs of the forum be made functional at the next meeting.”