Stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party from the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory have rejected the outcome of the consensus presidential exercise undertaken by a team put together by former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
The key PDP stakeholders announced their position in a communique issued after their meeting in Abuja on Monday.
In the communique read by a former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, who hosted the meeting, the stakeholders rejected the outcome of the Prof. Ango Abdullah-led committee, which threw up former President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, and the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, as preferred consensus candidates.
The committee then asked Saraki and Mohammed to decide among themselves who to present as the sole consensus candidate.
But reading the communique of the meeting, Lamido said: “We would like to state from the onset that there is nothing called the Northern PDP. Our coming together as key stakeholders from the Northern States is only for the purpose of debunking any notion or impression which might have been created by Prof Ango Abdullahi media statement about the Northern Elders Forum having shortlisted consensus PDP presidential Candidates.
“The Peoples Democratic Party as conceived by its founding fathers is and remains the foremost National Political platform wherein the Democratic aspirations of its teeming members can be actualized devoid of any sectional consideration. Our party is neither Northern nor Southern but Nigeria!
“We are happy to note that The Northern Elders Forum has through its Secretary Dr Hakeem Baba Ahmed disassociated itself from Prof Ango’s media statement. They made it clear that it is Ango’s personal opinion.
“The aspirants have informed us that they are discussing among themselves. They are consulting other senior citizens in order to create a better understanding and unity among themselves. Their ultimate objective is to build a National Consensus that will produce a national candidate for the party.
“We urge them to keep up with this commendable effort.
“Our meeting today is to reinforce the press release issued on 23/4/22 by Gov. Sule Lamido. We maintain that all our Aspirants are qualified to occupy the Nigerian Presidency under the PDP banner and we shall continue to support, promote and campaign and win the Presidency by the candidate produced by our National convention scheduled for May 28th – 29th 2022.
“We appeal to all Aspirants to be more temperate in their utterances and work to promote harmony and better understanding within the PDP Family.
“We also want to assure all PDP members and indeed all Nigerians that we are aware of your pains, prayers, expectations and hope to be rescued.
“Your abiding faith in PDP shall set us free in 2023. By the Almighty’s power, we will not fail Nigeria.”
Among those present at the meeting were former Minister, Adamu Waziri; former Governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger State), Boni Haruna (Adamawa State), Ibrahim Idris (Kogi State); Sanusi Daggash; and Dino Melaye.
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