Governor of NWP

Governor of the North Western Province (NWP) (1993-1994)

In October 1993, President D. B. Wijetunga appointed Dr. Kodituwakku as the Governor of the Northwestern Province. The breakaway UNP group, the DUNF, had formed a provincial government in the NWP with the support of the SLFP. President Wijetunga was worried about the situation and wanted to bring the group back into the UNP fold. Dr. Kodituwakku was appointed as Governor of NWP, and his unofficial mandate was to to resolve this problem.

Dr. Kodituwakku negotiated with the breakaway politicians, including the leader of the DUNF, Gamini Dissanayake, and the Chief Minister of the NWP, Premachandra. The negotiations were successful and both Dissanayake and Premachandra returned to the UNP. Disssanayake was to eventually be the UNP presidential candidate at the following 1994 elections, but was assassinated along with Premachandra and several other leading UNPers on the stage of an election rally at Grandpass in Colombo. Ironically, Dr. Kodituwakku, who had played the main hand in bringing them back to the UNP, was the sole survivor from the front row on that fateful stage.