BY LEKE ADESERI, South West Regional Editor

LAGOS – President Goodluck Jonathan may have decided to kill two birds with one stone in his attempt to ease the tension generated by the Lokoja saga where Policemen stopped  29 Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, members  travelling in an Osun State Government vehicle from proceeding to Abuja in solidarity with the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The relationship between the Presidency and Osun State governor became so frosty that the President who was represented by his Vice, Namadi Sambo, was ignored in the protocol observed by the governor before his speech at a national function.

According to reliable top government sources, “the development really jolted the Presidency which was doing everything possible to manage the sad development.

“Although the President scheduled a meeting with all the governors, he will use the opportunity to find a solution to strained relationship with the Osun governor,” the source said.

According to the governor’s spokesman, Semiu Okanlawon, “the governor went to Abuja for a meeting summoned by the president. It will involve all the governors.”
He could not confirm if the governor was scheduled to have private audience with the President or not.

It would be recalled that the purported arrest, detention and consequent deportation of 29 Osun State leaders of ACN from Lokoja, Kogi State by the police incurred  the anger of Gov. Aregbesola.

Subsequently, Gov. Aregbesola refused to recognise President  Jonathan represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo at an event in Oshogbo, the state capital.

Aregbesola who left out the President in the ‘Order of Precedence’ in his welcome address, stated that “the President was deliberately skipped while recognizing other government officials present at the occasion to protest the arrest and detention of 29 members of ACN by the commissioner of Police in Kogi state without any justifiable reason.”