The race for the national
chairmanship position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be over for
some aspirants.
This is as Southwest members in
the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) have shortlisted only three names from the
eight contenders that are vying for the seat.
The Southwest caucus of the BoT,
at the weekend, said it would not back any of the following: Oyo State ex-governor,
Senator Rashid Ladoja; Ogun State ex-governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel;
ex-national secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo; former Lagos governorship candidate,
Jimi Agbaje and Akin-Deko Akintayo from Ondo State.
However, the caucus narrowed
their options to former minister of Sports and Special Duties, Prof. Taoheed
Adedoja; former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Olabode George; and former
Education Minister Prof. Tunde Adeniran.
The decision is contained in a
document made available to newsmen Saturday evening.
Dated November 3, 2017, it was
signed by former deputy national chairman, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, on behalf
of other members of the South-west caucus.
According to the document, the
caucus picked Chief Bode George to represent Ogun-Lagos axis, Prof. Adedoja
from Osun-Oyo axis and Prof. Adeniran from Ekiti-Ondo axis respectively.
The caucus listed the reasons for
its action as follows: “Numerous calls and wise counsel from several quarters
to prune down the number of contestants to manageable number”.
“The need to improve the chance
of South West to clinch the position of the National Chairman of the Party at
the Convention.
“Reduce tension, rancour and
friction that may rise before, during and after the Convention among the winner
and other contestants.
“Assist the voting process on the
election day, reduce expenditure for non-recommended contestants, present
manageable list of contestants from the South West to compete favourably with
any other contestant(s) from any other zone(s) from the South.
“To avoid splitting of votes
among contestants from the South West and to provide soft landing for
non-recommended aspirants.
“In the over all interest of the
Party and after wide and due consultations, we have been taking cognizance of
various factors such as experience, acceptability across Nigeria, Educational
exposure, vision, public perception, international visibility, wining chances,
Party standing nationwide, members perception and expectations
The Southwest BoT caucus further
noted that its recommendations are without prejudice to the right of any
contestant outside the recommended list to contest.
“It is also without prejudice to
the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the
provisions of the constitution of our great Party that we agreed on Prof.
Taoheed Adedoja (Oyo state); Prof. Tunde Adeniran (Ekiti State) and Chief
Olabode George (Lagos state)”.
The caucus further stated that
its ultimate plan is to prune the shortlisted contenders to a single aspirant
after wide consultations ahead of the national convention scheduled to hold on
December 9 in Abuja.
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