As a pre-meeting truce move, President Jonathan has directed the immediate reinstatement of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the national secretary of the PDP.
Oyinlola, whose reinstatement had been ordered by the Appeal Court in Abuja, had earlier been announced as the factional scribe of the new PDP following the August 31 walkout of the G-7 Governors and other leaders of the PDP from the party’s national convention.
According to a top presidency official who confirmed the meeting on condition of anonymity, the former president had contacted Jonathan on the need to quickly call a meeting in order to allay the fears of the governors who have been up in arms against him and the national chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur.
He said: “Yes it is true, if you heard that he (Jonathan) would meet the governors tomorrow (today). They have to meet to iron out whatever differences once and for all, especially as the public is meant to believe that they are on their way to the APC.
“We know, for sure, that none of the governors has the real intention of going to the APC because they all know the implication of such move.
‘They know, for sure, that once they leave PDP and join the APC, they will be rendered irrelevant. You can see that in some states, there are already musings and grumblings going on, but it does not mean that, at least, a last chance would not be created for all parties to express their views on the crisis”, he said.
On the possible concessions likely to be made at today’s meeting, the source said some were likely but he was unspecific except on one.
“A few (concessions) have to be made on both sides. For a start, Mr. President, as a democrat, has already ordered the immediate reinstatement of Oyinlola following the court of appeal verdict; this could not happened previously”, he said.
On the G-7 governors’ meeting, a source said that the meeting was a ‘strategic session ahead of the parley with the president’.
“You should know that if the meeting with the president would hold as being widely speculated, you cannot expect the governors to just move into the Villa without any form of agenda or items for discussions with the president. We know the issues but after the last meeting, quite a lot of developments have happened, so they need to review events and have a united front to table issues,” he said.
When contacted, national publicity secretary of the new PDP, EzeChukwuemeka Eze, confirmed that the meeting of the G-7 governors became necessary in view of the need to have a common ground.
“The governors need to have a common front and present an agenda for tomorrow’s (today) meeting with the president,” Eze said.