Governor Chibuike Amaechi: Nobody should bring down a state because an ambition exists. Posted by: Rivers Initiative Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi yesterday clarified that he was never advised by the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to step down for Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF). He also said he has not spoken about his ambition for 2015, adding that even if there is an ambition; nobody has a right to bring down a state because of that. Amaechi spoke on a BBC programme, Hardtalk, aired yesterday. He said the NGF was striving to be independent from external forces. “Nobody advised me not to run,” the governor said. Asked if he told President Goodluck Jonathan, who is the leader of the PDP, of his ambition to re-contest the chairmanship of the NGF, Amaechi said: “There is no law that requires me to tell him that I was going to run. “I didn’t need to run to the president to say ‘Mr President, I need to run for the chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum’. I didn’t need to do that and I didn’t do that. “And he in turn did not call me to say ‘don’t run; I heard you’re going to run’. “So I ran and I didn’t see the President on the ballot. The person I saw on the ballot was Jonah Jang.” Amaechi reaffirmed that he defeated Jang 19 to 16 votes in the NGF poll. On his suspension from the PDP, the governor said nobody has the right to dictate the party he associates with.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 05:01:09 +0000