The North Central arm of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has initiated consultations among party leaders to select a new national chairman from the region.
This move aims to fill the vacancy left by the truncated tenure of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.
This was a sequel to the announcement of dates for the party’s national caucus/ national executive committee meetings scheduled to hold on April 17 and 18, 2024.
A usually reliable party source said: “We expect the zone to announce their choice before our NEC.”
Some of the names being considered include former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, from Kwara State and Senator Gabriel Suswam from Ayu’s native Benue State.
It was also learnt that party leaders from the zone met in Abuja last week to finetune strategies to present a common front to avoid acrimony.
Those at the crucial meeting included party executives from across the six states, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, that make up the north central zone, as well as selected elected representatives.
As a fallout of the meeting, it was reliably gathered that those in attendance agreed that the north central should serve out what is left of Ayu’s term, while Damagum whom most of them agreed, “has done well in acting capacity,” should revert to his original position as deputy national chairman.
A source at the meeting explained that Plateau State governor, Caleb Muftwang, is expected to convene a meeting of the zonal caucus to put final touches to the strategy on how this can be achieved.
