The unresolved tussle for the national chairmanship seat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has again caused the postponement of meetings of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and the National Executive Council (NEC) to next week.
The important organs of the party were previously scheduled to meet on Wednesday to try and resolve the crisis of leadership succession bedevilling the opposition party which has pitted the leaders against each other.
But in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, the party said it had approved the shifting of the national caucus, NEC and BoT meetings to Monday and Tuesday respectively.
The statement reads: “In view of requests by critical stakeholders and leaders of our great party, the National Working Committee (NWC) has approved the shifting of the meetings of key statutory organs of the party earlier scheduled for this week to next week next week.
“In the new schedule, the meeting of the National Caucus of the party has been shifted to Monday, February 15. In the same vein, the meeting of the Board of Trustees (BoT) will now hold on the morning of Tuesday, February 16 while the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting will hold on the same Tuesday, February 16.
“The NWC deeply regrets any inconveniences that may be caused by this shift in dates”.
However, THISDAY gathered that the reason for the postponement of the meetings is due to disagreements still trailing the negotiation by the party’s North-east stakeholders on whom to present for the chairmanship position.
In addition, it was gathered that a former Presidential Adviser, Ahmed Gulak is still insisting that the acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, cannot chair the NEC meeting and that he is the right person to chair the meeting.
It was learnt that rather than zeroing down on one candidate to be presented to the NEC, more aspirants from the North-east have kept emerging. As at yesterday, about nine candidates had shown interest in contesting for the PDP national chairmanship position.
Three, out of the seven candidates, who had applied for the position are from Gombe, two are from Adamawa and one each from Yobe and Bauchi respectively.
The candidates from Gombe it was gathered are, Abdullahi Jalo, Senator Saidu Kumo and Prof. Rufai Alkali. Adamawa candidates are, Ahmed Gulak and Senator Paul Wapana. Yobe candidate is Ambassador Umaru Damagun while Bauchi’s candidate is Senator Bala Mohammed.
A highly placed PDP source who gave reasons why the zonal meeting earlier held in Gombe to pick a chairman that would complete Adamu Mu’azu’s tenure was deadlocked said that there was a clash of interest between the governors and other leaders of the party.
The source said one of the governors was comfortable with Secondus, because of his presidential ambition in 2019. (Thisday)
