By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Amidst reports that Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), an umbrella body of the 36 State Governors in the country, has approved the full deregulation of petroleum products which will see Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) sold at over N400 per litre, one of them has revealed that the final decision has not been reached.
Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku, disclosed this on Friday in a chat with States House Correspondents after paying a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him the governors body has not taken a final decision on the removal of fuel subsidy, adding that the issues are being deliberated upon in order to come up with a final decision.
Said he: “These are all issues that are on-going, I can’t pre-empt anything now even including the issue of JASUN. They are all on-going. Committees have been set up. The issues are still on-going”.
Meanwhile, the Governor who said he was at Presidential Villa, Abuja to brief Professor Gambari for onward transmission to Mr. President the development in Taraba State said his domain has enjoyed a relative peace for sometime now.
He said: “I came to brief the Chief of Staff to pass some of my observations and thoughts to Mr. President, particularly on Mambilla hydro power”.
Asked what he is doing to address the issue of insurgency in his state, Governor Ishiaku answered thus:
“Well, we are doing our best under the circumstances to make sure that we reduce as much as possible the casualties.
And in Taraba, well, we have tried to reduce it. But of recent we’re still having our own problems too. But we working on it and and we’re on top of it. Just last week, I had some problems between the herders and the farmers and we have quelled it substantially. But with a lot of losses, we’re hoping that we’ll have come to a full stop by now”.
In another development, Governor Ishaku has described as a shock to him the recent defection of Cross River State Governor Benjamin Ayade from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the rulingAll Progressive Congress (APC).
Reacting to Ayade’s decamping on Thursday, Taraba Governor said: “Well, I wouldn’t know precisely the governor’s thinking, because all of us are different, but we are greatly shocked and embarrassed that he will suddenly dumped the party for APC, because all of us see PDP as alternative to APC. And all the PDP governors are doing very, very well, in their respective states.
