PDP Convention: Details of How Party Governors Shared Candidates Emerge
- Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party have worked together to ensure a smooth running of the national convention of the party
- The governors through their strategy ensured that there was no rancour and the emergence of aggrieved members of the party
- The leadership of the party worked to ensure that every governor produced their own candidate for various positions within the party
On Saturday, October 30, the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducted its national convention despite facing a series of legal and political battles from its aggrieved members.
The convention which was concluded on Sunday, October 31, saw the emergence of leaders for various positions in accordance with the party's constitution.
Source: Original
While a former Senate president, Iyorchia Ayu, emerged as the new national chairman of the PDP, Senator Samuel Anyanwu is now the new national secretary of the party.
However, the Sun reports that the governors of the PDP have effectively taken over the party's structure with the emergence of the new leaders.
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From the events which took place prior to the party's national convention, it was clear that the national chairman and deputy national were endorsed as the consensus candidate by the north and southeast governors respectively.
It was gathered that the PDP governors shared key positions within the party while putting up strong measures to ensure that other candidates did not contest against their preferred choices.
The party also agreed on the zoning of offices with governors given a free ticket to decide who fills the seats at the national working committee which they ceded to their various geo-political zones.
For instance, the Benue state governor as the only PDP governor in the north-central produced the national chairman while his Bauchi and Adamawa state colleagues produced the deputy national chairman - a position which was micro-zoned to the northeast by the party.
In the southwest, Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, produced the deputy national chairman for the south while his colleagues from Enugu and Abia states produced the party's national secretary.
In the same vein, Sokoto state governor, Aminu Tambuwal who doubles as the PDP governors' forum chairman produced the national organising secretary.
It was also gathered that in cases where there were no consensus candidates, the governors worked together to ensure the candidates supported by their colleagues emerged winners at the convention ground.
This was seen in the case of Olagunsoye Oyinlola who contested for the position the deputy national chairman (north) opposed Governor Seyi Makinde's choice, Taofeek Arapaja, a former Oyo state deputy governor.
Sources said that as Onyinola lost the needed support from Makinde, other 12 PDP governors threw their weight behind the latter to ensure that the Oyo state governor's choice of candidate emerge as the winner.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that despite losing at the PDP's national convention, Oyinola has congratulated Arapaja.
Oyinola congratulations to the new deputy national chairman comes after the leadership of the PDP prevailed on the former to step down and accept defeat over the position of the deputy national chairman (north).
It was gathered that Oyinola sent Arapaja a private message congratulating him on his victory and wishing him a successful tenure.
The congratulatory message has since been acknowledged by Arapaja.
In other news, the top three losers emerged from the just concluded national convention of the PDP which took place at Eagle Square in Abuja.
For the position of the deputy national chairman (north), Umar Damagum, former governorship candidate of Yobe state, polled 2,222 votes to beat Inna Ciroma, former minister of women affairs from Borno state, who garnered 365 votes.
Source: Legit.ng
