Amaechi spurns Tukur’s plea to return to PDP meeting

The Governor of Rivers State, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, on Sunday spurned the plea of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, to return to the reconciliation meeting of the party for the South-South.
The meeting was held at the Civic Centre, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The Eagle Online gathered that Tukur had permitted Amaechi to see off his Delta State counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, who had to leave the meeting to meet up with the closure time of the Asaba International Airport at 5pm.
Uduaghan, it was learnt, had told Tukur before the commencement of the meeting that he would have to leave midway into the meeting so that the airport is not closed before he arrives there.
Tukur was said to have granted the request.
Tukur also permitted Amaechi to see off his colleague to the airport and return to the meeting.
But Amaechi never returned to the meeting.
Even when Tukur called him on the telephone to return to the meeting, Amaechi did not heed the plea, it was learnt.
The meeting was called to reconcile members of the party in the South-South zone.
The reconciliatory meeting will also hold in other zones of the country.
Before leaving the meeting, Amaechi had appealed to members of the PDP in the South-South to be united in support of the PDP-led Federal Government and the leadership of the party.
Amaechi and the leadership of the PDP have been at loggerheads in the last few weeks.
The face-off reached its peak when a splinter group, the PDP Governors' Forum, emerged to rival the Nigeria Governors' Forum, which Amaechi heads.
The meeting that saw to the emergence of the PDPGF was held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with President Goodluck Jonathan, Tukur and other leaders of the PDP present.
Amaechi reportedly walked out of the meeting, which threw up the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Barrister Godswill Akpabio, as chairman of the PDPGF.