Nigeria Governors Forum meeting and its stalemate End

The meeting of the Nigeria Governors` Forum (NGF) on Wednesday in Abuja ended in a stalemate without the usual media briefing by its Chairman, Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers.

The meeting which was to discuss the forum’s stance on the on-going constitution amendment was attended by nine governors and eight Deputies.

The governors include those of Rivers, Ebonyi, Akwa-Ibom, Ekiti, Ondo, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano and Kogi states.
Deputy Governors of Niger, Adamawa, Yobe, Jigawa, Cross River, Bayelsa, Delta and Nasarawa states also attended the meeting.
The forum had at its last meeting of August 8 deferred its debate on the on-going constitutional amendment until the end of the Ramadan fasting period.
Amaechi, the forum’s chairman, said the forum would continue the debate when the Muslim faithful had returned from the Lesser Hajj.
This however meant that the media was not briefed on the outcome of the closed-door meeting which ended without any communiqué.
It would be recalled that the northern state governors, ahead of the review of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly, had opposed the creation of state police.
It had also opposed the inclusion of the country’s six geo-political zones in the constitution.
The governors also demanded the abrogation of the offshore/onshore dichotomy and the derivation principle. NAN