Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio had on Tuesday made a biblical allusion, while declaring that there were “more Judases than disciples” in the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF).
His statement has been seen by some analysts as an attack on Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, Chairman of the NGF and other governors who have kicked against the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Prominent among the judases could be Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Babangida Aliyu of Niger state.
Akpabio who is the Chairman of the newly formed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum, said this during a courtesy call on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party in Abuja.
He said it was unfortunate that the leadership of the forum have maintained a hard stance against President Goodluck Jonathan.
Akpabio reiterated that the PDP Governors’ Forum would not operate as a parallel body to the NGF.
“PDP is the only party with national spread and Nigerians have come to accept it. But when there is an implosion, when you have more Judases than disciples.The Judases are more than disciples now. We have to cleanse the system of Judases to support Mr. President.
“Where there is treachery, where there are more Judases than you have disciples, we want to have good disciples, we know that even in Christendom when Jesus Christ have 12 disciples, there was one Judas, but if the Judas were up to nine, then, Jesus could have been in trouble, the gospel would have been in trouble today.
“What the PDP is trying to do now is to cleanse its house, to try to identify the ones they called Judas and whisper it to them and said go out, the train is moving and you cannot stand, otherwise we will crush you. That’s the new PDP; it isn’t to challenge the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, but to strenghten it. We will not allow minorities to impose their ideas on us the majority. We will not allow NGF to be seen as a trade union to fight government. We cannot be fighting the Federal Government; we are part of the Federal Government. Our job is to work with the Federal Government to initiate best policies for the interest of Nigerians.”
He thanked President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, for anointing him for the office, assuring the party’s national leadership of his total support as Chairman of PDP governors.
“I thank Mr. President and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur for finding me worthy to lead the PDP Governors’ Forum. There was no PDP Forum 14 years ago, because there was no need then. But today, we are facing challenges and it is a function of PDP fighting itself. That forum isn’t about NWC, the forum is subordinate to the party, it will work in conjunction with the party. Once you give a directive, the millions of PDP supporters will get the message. We aren’t going to toy with the mandate given us. We will work with the party and Mr. President to propagate the ideals of PDP.”
Reacting, Tukur thanked Governor Akpabio for the visit and assured him of the support of the PDP NWC.
He said with the new mandate, President Jonathan would no longer be distracted in the discharge of his duties.
“PDP is ready more than ever before to face the challenges, because PDP as a party is in every polling booth in Nigeria. No party fields candidate in every polling booth in Nigeria, only PDP. With your support and understanding, I can tell Mr. President, “if you have been sleeping for three hours,you can now sleep well! You can even take a siesta,” Tukur said.
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