Amaechi, Jang, & Other Governors Attend President Jonathan’s Dinner

 Contrary to speculations of rumour mongers and non-well wishers, Governor Amaechi of Rivers State Nigeria, shocked many people by cancelling the NGF meeting slated for Wednesday, June 26th, 8pm, to honour the President's dinner invitation.

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This might very well have been a dare on the part of President Jonathan, to see Amaechi's reaction, since the NGF meeting was already fixed by Amaechi, before the invitation to the dinner was sent out.

Governor Jonah Jang of  Plateau State sure didn't have any issues being present as I'm sure he had no intention what ever, of attending the NGF meeting called by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State, Chairman of the NGF.

PUNCH Reports...

For the first time since the election that  caused a division in  the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, almost all the 36 state governors converged on the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday for a   mid-term dinner organised by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The two main antagonists in the NGF crisis Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who won the  May 24 election of the forum and Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State, who leads a faction of the group, attended the event.

Although Jang and members of his faction were already seated before the arrival of the President which signaled the commencement of the dinner, Amaechi and his loyalists arrived at the same time shortly after the event had started.

A mild drama however played out when Amaechi, who cancelled a meeting of the NGF earlier scheduled for 8pm on Wednesday,  joined the table where Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and others were already seated.

In the process of exchanging pleasantries, Amaechi was heard pointing to Akpabio and saying, 

“No, you can never be a democrat.”

Some governors in the Amaechi faction were initially seated among journalists at the back of the hall before they were  ushered in to the front where seats were reserved for them.

The other  governors  in attendance were  those of Niger, Lagos, Nasarawa, Imo, Edo, Adamawa, Zamfara, Ogun, Kano, Ekiti and Jigawa.

Others were the governors of  Sokoto, Cross River, Bauchi, Abia, Plateau, Kogi, Ebonyi , Ondo, Delta, Anambra and Kaduna states.

The  acting governor of Taraba State and the deputy governors of Bayelsa, Kwara, Katsina, Benue and Gombe States were also in attendance.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwwal, was however  absent at the dinner attended by the President of the Senate, David Mark; and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.

The dinner was still ongoing at the time of filing this report.

Before the cancellation of the NGF meeting, some of the Pro-Amaechi governors had converged on the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, where they took the final decision to  attend the dinner.

In a brief chat with journalists before they moved to the Villa, Amaechi said
"We have shifted the meeting to honour the invitation sent to us for dinner by the President. We would have loved to meet, but we have to honour the President’s invitation".