Five governors who dumped the PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC) have told President Goodluck Jonathan that their defection is real.

Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, on behalf of Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (Kano), Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers); delivered the message to Jonathan at a peace meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday night.

Addressing State House correspondents at about 3.20am after the meeting, Wamakko said he and Kwankwaso were in attendance to honour Jonathan's invitation.

"On behalf of the five of us, I have already briefed Mr. President on our position as G5 that we are no longer in the PDP mainstream and that we are already in another party. But as president of this country, if he calls us, we will come and listen to him and respect him as a leader of our country. Otherwise what we had there was mostly a PDP affair.

"We had to tell the president and the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) our position. We cannot just be going about talking. We had to come and tell them the truth where the truth must be told, and that is why we came here," he said.

Also speaking, Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio, who was also present, said the meeting was a continuation of the dialogue the president initiated with the seven PDP aggrieved governors few months ago to ensure peace and harmony in the party.

Akpabio said Wamakko was just one PDP member in Sokoto State who, he said, should realise that thousands of others in the state would remain in the PDP.  

Akpabio, who said the issue of the APC was not discussed at the meeting, hinted that the implication of the governors' defection differed from states to states. 

"You've to distinguish the issue state-by-state. You've to take the issues state-by-state. I wasn't here when the governor of Sokoto was talking to you and I know that the governor of Sokoto State is just one member of the PDP in Sokoto and if he says he's leaving the PDP, I'm sure there are still thousands of other members of PDP who will say we're staying within the PDP. So, you can't say all hope is lost... We'll continue dialogue. Akpabio denied knowledge of the media reports that PDP governors were demanding the removal of the national chairman of the party, Bamanga Tukur.

Present at  meeting were Governors Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Jonah Jang (Plateau), Mukhtar Yero (Kaduna), Theodore Orji (Abia), Sa'idu Dakingari  (Kebbi), Idris Wada (Kogi), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Sullivan Chime (Enugu), Liyel Imoke (Cross River), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom), Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta), Martins Elechi (Ebonyi) and Taraba Acting Governor Garba Umaru PDP as well as PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony.