PDP Northern Elders Forum constitutes committee for party’s National Convention – Former deputy Senate president Ibrahim Mantu is the chairman of the committee – Committee is made up of 16 people The Peoples Democratic Party Northern Elders Forum has set up a 16-man committee to screen candidates from the North that are vying for different positions that have been given to North. The decision is one of the ways leaders from North want to use to produce worthy candidates. In a situation there are more than one candidate slugging it out for a given position, all the candidates will unanimously agree on the single candidate that would be vie for the position.
The chairman of the screening committee is one-time deputy Senate president Ibrahim Mantu. Mantu is expected to submit its report of the committee a day before the convention, which is scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital. Sources who have knowledge about the PDP Northern Elders Forum said delegates from the region are likewise required to bring forward a single platform on which candidates from the other regions are slugging it out for different positions. The party has zoned the national chairmanship position to the southern region of the country. However, the Northern zone is to produce the PDP’s national secretary in addition to one vice chairmanship slot. The remaining positions given to the North include: The deputy national chairman 2, national financial secretary, national publicity secretary, national auditor, national woman leader, deputy national treasurer, deputy national organising secretary, deputy national youth leader, deputy national legal adviser as well as deputy national secretary. On the other hand, the southern part were asked to produce the deputy national chairman 1, national treasurer, national legal adviser, national youth leader, national organising secretary, deputy national publicity secretary, deputy national woman leader, deputy national auditor and deputy national financial secretary. When the PDP ended its 5th meeting in Abuja, the party’s Northern Leaders Forum the coordinator, Professor Jerry Gana stated that the objective of the committee was not to impose any candidate on the delegates but became important based on “a strategic guideline” for the Northern delegates to support only credible candidates.
Currently, five people from Kogi state have shown interest to contest the national publicity secretary, which was given to the state. Some of the candidates who have bought nomination form for the national publicity secretary include: Former special adviser to former Senate president David Mark, Kola Ologbodinyan, a member of the Caretaker Committee, Barrister Usman and three other candidates. At least five people have obtained nomination forms for the position of national chairman that was given to the southern part of the country. The candidates here include: One-time deputy chairman of PDP Chief Bode George, founder of DAAR Communications, Raymond Dokpesi, former governorship candidate of PDP in Lagos state at the last governorship election, Jimi Agbaje, among others.
The names of the people in the 16-man committee set up to screen candidates from the North are given below: 1. Senator Ibrahim Mantu Chairman of committee, 2. Hon. Margaret Icheen, 3. Alhaji Y.Y. Suleiman, 4. Alhaji Idris Ibrahim (former governor of Kogi state), 5. Ambassador Wilberforce Juta, 6. Mallam Adamu Waziri, 7. Hon. Inuwa Garba, 8. Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa (former Governor of Sokoto state), 9. Ambassador Aminu Wali (Immediate past foreign affairs minister) 10. Nuhu Bajoga (former deputy governor of Kaduna state), 11. Ambassador Ibrahim Kazaure, 12. Emmanuel Jijiwa, 13. Hon Zainab Maina, 14. Mrs Laraba Mallam, 15. Pharmacist Nana, 16. Shehu Suleiman. As the heat generated by the PDP convention increases, Bode George, one of the candidates running for the national chairmanship race has expressed his disappointment over the insistence of Jimi Agbaje, to contest against him.
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