Governors under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have urged President Bola Tinubu to restrain his officials from making derogatory remarks aimed at blackmailing sub-national governors.
Chairman of the forum, Bala Mohammed, made this statement on Friday in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, while reading the resolutions of a meeting attended by nine governors.
According to him, “The Forum laments that rather than undertaking a review of macroeconomic and social policies to give them a human face, the Federal Government has resorted to blackmail.
“We call on Mr President to demonstrate statesmanship by restraining his officials from engaging in blame games that make the sub-nationals look bad by mentioning piecemeal interventions that cannot solve the problem.
“We remain unshaken in our firm resolve to stand with the suffering Nigerian masses and to take all legitimate steps to ameliorate their plight.”
READ ALSO:
FUTA to sustain cultivation of unique variety of tomatoes
Adamawa Gov begins payment of 70k minimum wage
PDP has been irredeemably destroyed, says Dino Melaye
He also the PDP governors stand firmly with their Rivers State counterpart, Siminalaye Fubara, and condemn the intimidation of PDP supporters ahead of the Edo governorship election.
“The Forum notes the political impasse in Rivers State where court judgments are employed to determine the outcome of the party congresses.
“The PDP Governors’ Forum restates its stand with the Governor of Rivers State and will engage the NWC of our great party to revisit the congress to correct the anomaly and allow His Excellency Governor Siminalayi Fubara to take his rightful leadership position of the party in the state.
“About the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, we condemn the pronouncements by the President to compromise the election in favour of his Party as well as the systematic intimidation of PDP supporters by the Nigeria Police and call on the Inspector General of Police to call his men to order.
“The Forum notes with concern, the refusal of the Federal Government to distinguish between the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) revenue and revenue accruing to the Federation which must be allocated by extant laws.
“We call on the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to be more transparent in obeying the law, particularly section 162 (1) (2) (3). And equally, call on the Accountant General of the Federation to stop behaving like the Accountant General of the Federal Government and to exercise her role in line with the constitution.
“Therefore, we call for the separation of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and that of the Accountant General of the FGN.
“We also noted with a sigh of relief the end of the #EndBadGovernance protests which were edging towards a major national crisis.
“We salute the dexterity of the Governors, especially those of the PDP extraction, in handling the situation in their respective States with maturity, thereby restraining hoodlums and other unscrupulous elements from hijacking the protests.
“The Forum reiterates that peaceful protests are the inalienable rights of the citizens through which they vent their genuine grievances.
“The Forum commiserates with the families of those innocent souls that were lost and calls on the Federal Government to ensure fair and speedy trials of those who were arrested.”
Present at the meeting were Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State; Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State; Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State; Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State; Godwin Obaseki of Edo State; Peter Mbah of Enugu State; Caleb Muftwang of Plateau State; Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State; and the host governor, Dr. Agbu Kefas of Taraba State.
