ThisDay, a Nigerian Newspaper has it that Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi and the five northern Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, who have been going round the country holding consultations on the state of the nation, may have decided to form their own political party, named Voice of the People (VOP).
The party, which is seeking registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), We learnt, is being sponsored by eight PDP governors, while consultations are still ongoing with others with a view to expanding its membership.
Apart from Amaechi, other governors linked to the party are Alhaji Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano), Alhaji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (Niger) and Alhaji Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto).
The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, it was learnt, is also said to have bought into the idea as well as another governor whose identity was not disclosed Sunday.
“Ahmed may have become an outsider in the PDP, given the way his predecessor and benefactor, Senator Bukola Saraki, is being treated by the federal government.
“So the best option for him is to tag along with those who share a similar fate. If there is anything that is certain, it is the fact that PDP is no longer home to people like him,” a source said last night.
Saraki is being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the collapse of the defunct Societe General Bank of Nigeria (SGBN), in which his family had a stake and the former governor was an executive director of the bank.
Also, House of Representatives Speaker, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, is said to have been contacted but has not decided whether or not he is ready to go along with the promoters of VOP.
Tambuwal, we gathered, has been pondering his political future in view of the fact that the PDP is believed to be plotting to sound the death knell on his political future along with some other House members for being renegade members of the party.
The speaker, with the support of the lawmakers, had dealt a fatal blow to the PDP zoning formula at the inception of the current political dispensation in 2011.
In disregard for the party’s decision, which had conceded the House speakership to the southwest, Tambuwal, from the northwest, ran and won the position.
Apart from that, he is believed to reign over a lower chamber deemed confrontational by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration and may have been marked down for some punishment of sorts.
One of the sources quoted the speaker as saying that he admired the courage of the governors to take such a bold step in the face of the swirling intimidation and harassment of some political figures in the country, but he was yet to take a decision as at the time of filing this report.
We further learnt last night that the decision to float a new party was informed by the narrowing options available to the governors and other PDP members disenchanted with the leadership of the party as the 2015 elections approach.
A source has it that the move was one of the strategies mooted during the consultations that the governors had held with different stakeholders in the country, with the floating of a new party considered one of the options that was deemed plausible under the circumstances.
The source said while the governors are not averse to resolving their differences with the PDP, they are however concerned that a peace initiative might not be genuine.
Their concern is buttressed by the fact that the presidency and its officials have not demonstrated sincerity in ensuring genuine reconciliation in the party.
The source explained that while reconciliation has still not been achieved on account of the mistrust between the governors and the presidency, the need to chart a new course had become inevitable, hence the emergence of VOP that is still in the works.
“It is a possibility and it is still in the works. The information with you, to the best of my knowledge is 50/50 and so anything could happen. Indeed, it is one of the many options that is being considered and I can say that this option is in the works the source said.
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