PDP chairmanship: Stalemate as consensus arrangement suffers setback

 

 

PDP chairmanship: Stalemate as consensus arrangement suffers setback

 

The search for a consensus national chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, suffered setback Wednesday night.

A meeting of the party’s stakeholders where a consensus candidate would have been picked could not hold as some party leaders were absent.

The botched meeting was billed to hold at the Bauchi Governor’s lodge in Abuja.

However, Governors Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, Samuel Ortom of Benue and Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State were present.

Others present include former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, former Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Tanimu Turaki, Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin.

However, The Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, who doubles as the Chairman, PDP National Convention Organising Committee, said the meeting had been adjourned till Thursday.

He said the meeting could not hold on Wednesday night due to “communications gap“.

“Unfortunately, we could not meet because of communication gap, some of our leaders could not make it to the venue.

“We have adjourned the meeting till tomorrow (Thursday) when we will take a definite position on the chairmanship position that has been zoned to the north.

“At the moment, all the three zones in the North are interested in the position,” Fintiri disclosed.

However, the North Central PDP stakeholders on Wednesday adopted a former Senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, as their consensus candidate.

It was also gathered that various interest camps in the North-West are soliciting support for the duo of Ahmed Makarfi and Ibrahim Shema, ex-governors of Kaduna and Katsina states respectively.