By Philip Nwosu
Former governor of Jigawa State, Ambassador Sule Lamido, has said the decision of “Northern consensus presidential candidates” of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) announced on Friday does not represent the position of party members in the region.
Over the past weeks, four presidential hopefuls: Bukola Saraki, former senate president; Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State governor; Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto governor, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the now-defunct FSB International Bank, held consultations across the country on consensus candidacy.
On Friday, Saraki and Bala Mohammed were announced as “northern consensus candidates” following a report released by elder statesman, Prof Ango Abdullahi.
But Tambuwal rejected the report, saying that was not the agreement reached at a previous meeting involving the four aspirants.
In a statement issued yesterday, Lamido described the report as the “personal opinion” of those who issued it.
The statement reads in part: “The attention of key stakeholders of the PDP in the northern states is drawn to reports in the media that some northern elders had shortlisted two of our prominent and deserving aspirants as consensus PDP presidential candidates.”
“Having widely consulted party leaders across the 19 northern states and FCT, it is hereby stated to our teeming party members and the general public that what was reported in the media is only the personal opinion of those who issued the statement and not the position of the PDP members in the North.
“Discussions are ongoing with all the aspirants in our party with a view to having a national consensus if possible or at least working towards having a smooth, acrimony-free national convention. The position of the northern elders is not only injurious to the North, but equally injurious to the northern aspirants.”