FORMER Senate President, Professor Iyorchia Ayu, has emerged as the consensus candidate of the North-Central zone for the post of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The decision was reached at a meeting of stakeholders from the zone in Abuja on Tuesday.
Previously, speculation had been rife that another former Senate President, David Mark, was poised to be selected from the zone as the preferred candidate for the position.
However, at the end of the meeting on Tuesday night, Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State told reporters that Ayu was chosen out of the five persons that indicated interest.
He said, “This is stakeholders’ meeting of the NorthCentral PDP in continuation of the progress of finding consensus candidates for the national chairmanship of a party.
“Looking for someone with the capacity with the commitment, love and passion for our party, we met here for several hours.
“Amongst the five persons that were contesting the leadership of our party from North-Central, we unanimously agreed to sponsor former Senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, to be national chairman of our party from the North-Central.
“There was no voting, we all agreed that he is the right person for this job at this time.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday), the northern stakeholders of our party are going to meet. So, he will be presented to the northern caucus of the party.”
Meanwhile, there were indications on Wednesday that the battle for chairmanship in PDP may eventually be between two former governors and the current deputy national chairman (North), Senator Suleiman Nazif.
The ex-governors are Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State and Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, who once acted in that capacity years after serving as a two-term governor of Kaduna State.
Feelers last night showed that members of the northern caucus of PDP are expected to settle for one of the contenders for the post of national chairman ahead of the national convention of the party.
Alhaji Ibrahim Shema emerged as the consensus choice of the major stakeholders from the six states in the North-West, while only one state reportedly endorsed Makarfi for the chairmanship contest.
Senator Nazif is the only contender from the North-East.
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