Stakeholders and governors
on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are reportedly divided
over the party’s presidential ticket for the 2019 election.
The New Telegraph reports
that the lack of consensus candidate for the poll might have been compounded
over the recent defection of some members of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) to the PDP.
The newspaper stated that
stakeholders are divided between handing over the ticket to defectors or
members who had stayed in the party since 2015 when PDP became an opposition
party.
This issue has been
reportedly complicated by about 11 aspirants who are said to be interested in
the PDP presidential ticket, which has been zoned to the north.
The candidates reportedly
include:
1. Former vice president,
Atiku Abubakar
2. Former Jigawa state
governor, Sule Lamido
3. Former minister of
special duties, Kabiru Turaki
4. Immediate past chairman
of PDP national caretaker committee, Ahmed Makarfi
5. Senator Datti Baba
Ahmed, proprietor of Baze University
6. Gombe state governor,
Ibrahim Dankwambo
7. Former Kano state
governor Ibrahim Shekarau
8. Former Sokoto state governor,
Attahiru Bafarawa
9. President of the Senate,
Bukola Saraki
10 Sokoto state governor
Aminu Tambuwal
11 Former Kano state
governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso
A source at the party’s
national headquarters told the New Telegraph that there is a cold war in the
party over the presidential ticket.
“There is ‘cold war’ now in
the party since Tambuwal and Saraki came back. You know, they are interested in
the presidency," the unnamed source said.
“With that, the front
runners would be Atiku and Tambuwal. As a matter of fact, the battle is a
straight one between Atiku and Tambuwal. The governors and other party
stakeholders are divided.
“The interesting thing this
time is that the governors are not united unlike before. (Nyesom) Wike is
mobilising for Tambuwal, but (Seriake) Dickson and Abia State Governor, Dr.
Okezie Ikpeazu, are supporting Atiku. “So, it may be difficult to predict who
will likely pick the ticket.”
He said, however, said that
those who had remained in the party like Makarfi, Lamido and others, are not
happy that defectors are being given attention ahead of them.
Another source said those
who had remained in PDP are clamouring for that the presidential ticket be a
compensation for any one of them who remained loyal to the party while others
were on political green pasture elsewhere.
Meanwhile, supporters of
the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and the director general of Voice
of the Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, are in an ensuing political battle over
the Enugu west senatorial seat.
Premium Times reports that
Ekweremadu, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), is currently
spending his fourth term in the upper legislative chamber of the National
Assembly, having been elected in 2003.
Okechukwu has however,
declared his intention to contest election for the Senate in 2019 under the
platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to represent the Enugu west
senatorial district - the district currently represented by Ekweremadu.
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