PDP shortlists four for national chairman position
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have narrowed its search for a new National Chairmanship to four out of the prospective candidates contesting for the office.
Among the contenders are former governor of old Gongola State, Wilberforce Juta, former Presidential Adviser on Political Matters, Professor Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed and former Minister of State (Power), Mohammed Wakil.
Various organs of the party have been meeting since last week to prune down the long list of contenders and to calm down frayed nerves.
The criteria said to have adopted in screening the candidates include national acceptability, capacity to rebuild the party and integrity test, especially given the determination of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government to use the $2.1 billion arms scandal to smear chieftains of the party.
“We don’t want to have a National Chairman who will spend most of his time defending himself of corrupt allegations. We are not leaving anything to chance. That is why the emphasis is on integrity,” a source disclosed.
Juta who was two weeks ago nominated by the the Adamawa State chapter of the PDP would have been a preferred candidate but because of his age.
He is the only one among the contenders who has not been in government since he left office in 1983.
The list of candidates will be presented to party’s National Caucus, which meets Tuesday for consideration before passing it over to the Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC), for ratification and adoption.
The NEC will announced the new National Chairman on Wednesday.
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