Mimiko to lead PDP Governors' Forum

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum are expected to meet in Abuja next week.

It will be their first meeting since the end of the elections  and members are expected to confirm Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State as the new Chairman of the Forum.

Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja on Friday, the Coordinator of the Forum, Mr. Osaro Onaiwu, said there had been informal meetings where about nine of the governors zeroed in on Mimiko as the new chairman of the Forum.

According to Onaiwu, an earlier meeting scheduled for this week was shelved as the governors were said to be engaged in the negotiations and horse-trading with regards to the elections of the new leadership of the National Assembly.

Asked if other governors were not interested in leading the Forum, the PDP Governors’ Forum coordinator said the coming meeting will determine if there was such interest.

He said, “Am aware that about nine of them have already thrown their support behind Mimiko to lead the forum, because they said they want very steady and organised hands now that the PDP is in opposition.”

Former Governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, was the first and the only chairman of the Forum.

The Forum was hurriedly formed during the crisis that rocked the Nigeria Governors Forum, when a former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was elected the chairman.

Following the emergence of Amaechi as the NGF chairman, aggrieved members of the Forum later formed their own faction of the Forum and elected a former Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang, as their chairman.