16 governors met at the Imo State Liaison Office in Abuja for over five hours under the auspices of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, which Imos State Governor, Rochas Okorocha chairs.

It will be recalled that the governors in May requested then President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to consider some financial assistance to the states because of their dwindling allocations caused by falling oil prices.

Okorocha while speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting said, “We the governors of the progressive party met today to review the state of the economy. We also met to review the issues as they affect our great party. We are concerned and worried by the dwindling revenue of the states which today has affected negatively the lives of our people. It has become so serious and urgent actions must be taken for a bail out for the states. Things are not getting better; we sat down to review what steps could be taken. We are calling for overhaul of the system to block all the leakages in our economy. We have realised that what we are going through today is as a result of the poor management of our economy in the recent time. The APC government met a near empty treasury. This has become very worrisome, not just for us, but for the entire nation.

“We have some natural challenges in the country because of the drop in oil price and the issue of oil theft. There are other issues like the crude swap. We have the gas revenues which have never reflected before. We have the mismanagement of oil subsidy. A few years ago, we paid about N200 million. Today, it is about N1.4 trillion. We are worried”.

He added, “We also have congratulated the leadership of the National Assembly. That is the leaders of the National Assembly. We are aware that the process attracted a lot of disagreements here and there. We, the governors of the party have resolved to embark on a peace process to make sure that we return as members of one family we have always been. We have also discussed how to strengthen our party. This is the party that brought change and that change must stand. We will make the party meet the desires of our great members. We are assuring Nigerians that we will remain focused and address some of the issues”.

Apart from Okorocha, some other governors at the meeting were; Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos) Tanko Al Makura (Nasarawa), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Aminu Bello Masari (Katsina), Abdullahi Umar Ganduje ( Kano), and Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).