Ahead of Saturday’s national convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, the leadership of the PDP, has concluded plans to commit all its Presidential aspirants in the 2019 general elections to a bond, in what appears to be a move aimed at preventing a possible post-convention crisis. The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan said the resolution was taken at the party’s 82nd National Executive Committee meeting, last week in Abuja.
He said: “Our resolve to conduct a free, fair, credible and acceptable convention is total and the party is fully committed to this. This week, all the Presidential aspirants will sign a bond not only to accept the outcome of the process but also to support whoever emerges winner of the ticket. “The PDP has the experience, the capacity and focus to restore our people’s confidence in this nation having witnessed more than three and a half years of unfulfilled promises by the APC-led government.”
While it is not clear yet if the agreement will be signed in Abuja or Port Harcourt, the publicity scribe dismissed fear of possible crisis as a fallout of the convention saying what would have warranted such, have been addressed by the leadership of the party.
“It is common for people to nurse fears because convention is a big event. As a rebranded and repositioned platform, the National Working Committee has no preferred aspirant as we believe they are all good for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “They (aspirants) have been meeting with party leaders and delegates and at the end, the choice of the delegates is the choice of the party. For this reason, everyone believe and rightly so that that the field is open and the best will emerge in Port Harcourt,” he added.
On Saturday, about 3, 619 delegates will converge in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital to pick a Presidential candidate for the party from a pack of 13 aspirants made up of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and governors of Sokoto and Gombe states, Aminu Tambuwal and Ibrahim Dankwambo respectively. Others include erstwhile governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Jigawa, Kano and Plateau states, Ahmed Makarfi, Attahiru Bafarawa, Sule Lamido, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Jonah Jang respectively as well as immediate past Senate President, David Mark, businessman and ex-lawmaker, Datti Baba-Ahmed and Stanley Osifo.
Source: Vanguard
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