Northern PDP Leaders Hold Consensus Meeting Ahead Of National Convention

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the North have held a consensus meeting ahead of the party’s forthcoming national convention.

The meeting held on Wednesday at the Bauchi State Governor’s Lodge in the Asokoro area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It, however, suffered a setback as some stakeholders in the party were reported to have shunned the meeting.

Chairman of the Convention Organising Committee and Adamawa State Governor, Umaru Fintiri, disclosed that the meeting had been adjourned till Thursday to allow for further consultations.

The PDP leaders from the northern region had met to trim down the number of candidates contesting for the office of the national chairman of the PDP, as well as other positions in the forthcoming convention.

Last Thursday, they agreed to set up a 20-man committee that would streamline the number of contestants from each of the zones in the region.

Party leaders in the north-central region had held a similar meeting on Tuesday where Professor Iyorchia Ayu emerged as a consensus candidate for the chairmanship position in the convention to be held later in October.

On September 9, the PDP leadership set up a national zoning committee to zone national offices to be contested by all PDP members.

But the mandate of the committee did not include zoning of the offices of the president, vice president, as well as other executive and legislative offices in the country.

The committee is headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, while Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Mohammed, are deputy chairman and secretary respectively.

Three weeks after its inauguration, the committee announced that the next national chairman of the party should come from the North, in line with the Constitution of the party on zoning and rotation of party and national offices in the interest of justice, equity, and fairness.

It stated that the current offices being held by officers in the South should swap places with the offices currently in the North.

The recommendations of the committee were later ratified by the PDP’s National Executive Committee at its meeting held on Thursday last week.