By Tina Akannam & Aliyu Dangida
After several hours of holding a closed-door meeting Monday night in Dutse, the capital of Jigawa State, the Governors of Yobe, Sokoto and Jigawa states said they had  resolved  to intensify efforts towards achieving their objective of promoting the unity of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, despite the present situation within the party.

In a four paragraph communiqué signed by all the governors, and made available to newsmen, Tuesday morning, they stated that their meeting was a continuation  of a previous one they held in Sokoto and Adamawa states last month.

Though the governors did not disclose issues discussed during their closed door meeting, but Vanguard gathered reliably that their meeting was purely on how to calm the tension within the PDP before and even after the party’s primaries which will soon be held.  The statement states:

“We also appreciate the calming effect the meetings have had with various groups across the country; we resolved to intensify efforts to achieve our earlier stated objectives”.

However, Vanguard further gathered that the three governors who felt they had like minds on the controversies surrounding a northern presidential candidate for the 2011 election were not comfortable with the modus operandi of the Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, on the selection of a consensus candidate among the four northerners who indicated interest to contest the nation’s number one seat.

Vanguard learnt that in their desperate move to wade into the situation, the three governors resolved to act as peacemakers within the PDP to avert any negative move that may affect the chances of the party in 2011 presidential elections.

Incidentally, the Northern Political Leaders Forum  led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma declared former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as their consensus candidate before the governors held their secret meeting monday night, yet they deliberately refused to comment on the choice of NPLF.