* Three Musketeer Governors, Okowa, Wike, Udom Hijack South–South PDP For Selfish Interest
Governors of Cross River, Edo and Bayelsa, Benedict Ayade, Seriake Dickson, and Godwin Obaseki on Monday shunned
BRACED Commission meeting held in Delta state government house, Asaba.
The meeting which was attended by governors Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), HardReporters reliably gathered never discussed anything concerning the commission as governor of Akwa Ibom state, Emmanuel Udom made the people to believe while addressing the press shortly after the meeting.
According to an impeccable government source, the three musketeer governors did not discussed about the commission, neither did they discussed any issue of national security as they try to make people to believe, rather the discussed about their party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), “These three musketeer governors want the soul of the party in the South-South region, they have hijacked the party and they will destroy PDP because of their selfish interest, just watch.”
“Do you believed what governor of Akwa Ibom state, Emmanuel Udom said it was discussed in their meeting about the BRACED commission.? How can you be conveying a meeting of BRACED commission, an acronym for Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta states, and will not have the governors of Governors of Cross River, Edo and Bayelsa, Benedict Ayade, Seriake Dickson, and Godwin Obaseki that comprises the commission in attendance.?
“Remember that governors Seriake Dickson and Benedict Ayade were not in support of the Senator Ahmed Makarfi led caretaker committee of PDP, but were in full support of the Senator Modu Sheriff led factional leadership of the PDP. And based on this fact, governors Ifeanyi Okowa, Nyesom Wike and Udom Emmanuel have decided not to carry them along in the Makarfi led PDP. If actually their mission was the commission, the absented three governors would have been in attendance.” the source said.
A credible government house source in Benin, told our correspondent that there was no BRACED Commission meeting, “If there were, my governor, His Excellency Godwin Obaaeki would have been invited, let them show us the invitation sent to the governor for the commission meeting in Asaba. Well, as far as we are concernd, if there was a thing like that, we in the protocol would have been informed. That meeting was a PDP meeting. The question is how can a whole three governors just absent from BRACED commission meeting, its not possible, and not even a representative was sent.? You can see they lied, it was not BRACED Commission meeting.” the source insisted.
HardReporters could recalled that that the commission was set up by the previous governments in the region, then Governor Liyel Imoke, served for about four years as chairman, after that Governor Amaechi, Governor Uduaghan of Delta State, Akpabio of Akwa Ibom and Sylva of Bayelsa, later Seriake Dickson came on board and Oshiomhole of Edo State, who was the last chairman.
Briefing journalists after their closed door meeting, which lasted two hours, Governor Emmanuel Udom of Akwa-Ibom said: “We just came together to discuss few economic issues and how we can revive the BRACED Commission. Also, we looked at how we can fortify security network, especially now that the oil prices are a little bit epileptic, we need to make sure that we maintain oil production.
“So, we are looking at how we can form that unity and see how we can tackle the problem of insecurity to maintain that level of oil production without necessarily jeopardizing our responsibilities to our people, the BRACED commission is a good economic platform for the entire people of the region. The commission is to look at areas of common economic interest so that we can also foster economic growth in the region. The BRACED commission is a vision we don’t want to abandon.” Udom said.
