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- Leadership caucus moves to trim contenders’ list
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

A new acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the North-east geopolitical zone will emerge today as the opposition party goes into a crucial meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja.
A new acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the North-east geopolitical zone will emerge today as the opposition party goes into a crucial meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) in Abuja.
However, ahead of today’s meetings of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and the NEC, the meeting of the national leadership caucus got underway yesterday night.
There were indications that the leaders resolved to bring to an end the lingering charimanship tussle by asking the North-east stakeholders to prune the number of contenders to three for consideration.
THISDAY gathered that five states in the North-east had earlier made nominations choosing one aspirant each which they submitted to the party. However, a source gave the names of the aspirants shortlisted as at yesterday as Wilberforce Juta (Adamawa), former Minister of State for Power, Mohamed Wakili and Prof. Rufai Alkali.
Perhaps what is making the tussle more difficult to resolve is the divergent interests shown by the party’s governors in the zone, particularly Governors Ibrahim Dakwambo of Gombe State and Dairus Ishaku of Taraba.
It was learnt that the governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriaka Dickson, other governors and leaders of the party tried to use the opportunity of the ceremony for his inauguration last weekend in Yenagoa to push for a common agenda at today’s NEC meeting.
It is expected that the outcome of last night’s national caucus meeting would set the tone for the final ratification of key resolutions at the NEC meeting, including the issue of reforms and constitutional amendments.
The issue of selecting someone from the zone to replace the former chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu who resigned shortly after the party lost out in the 2015 presidential poll had been a subject of protracted tussle with some of the stakeholders, especially from the north east demanding an end to the continued stay in office by the Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
Following the court action brought against Secondus by an aggrieved former presidential aide, Alhaji Ahmed Ali Gulak and subsequent order by the FCT High Court in December asking the party to appoint a new acting national chairman from the north east within two weeks.
But as the stakeholders from the North-east failed to agree on a consensus candidate, the party was forced to postpone its scheduled BoT and NEC meetings twice.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, last week, the party said it had approved a new date for the national caucus, NEC and BoT meetings which was to hold 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”.
Among the leaders of the party that attended the caucus meeting Monday night were seven governors, including the Governors of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, Emmanuel Udom (Akwa Ibom), Dr. Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).
Other leaders included Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu , Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, some members of the senate and House of Representatives, the National Vice-Chairman (Soutjh-south) Dr. Cairo Ojugboh and the National Legal Adviser, Victor Kwom. Both the Acting National Chairman of PDP, Prince Secondus and the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh arrived the venue of the caucus meeting at about 9.05p.m. All the other members of the NWC were also in attendance
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