The former Vice President and the aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, ex-governor of Jigawa State, Lamido Sule, have rejected the consensus arrangement of northern elders for the party primaries.
Northern Elders Forum, led by Prof Ango Abdullahi, selected consensus candidates, former senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki, former Managing Director, FSB International Bank, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, out of the four governors, which included Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, and Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, through the NEF report in Minna on Friday.
This is as the National Executive Committee of the PDP prepares to meet on Wednesday in Abuja to take a decision on the zoning of the presidency.
This was made known through a notice signed by the party’s National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu.
Speaking on the consensus arrangement by the northern elders, Atiku notified his supporters that he did not subject himself to such deal organised by the NEF, and was therefore not bound to their selection of a candidate for the PDP.
Atiku spoke through a press statement by the Chairman of the Technical Committee for the Actualisation of Atiku Abubakar’s Presidency in 2023, TEECOM, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, on Saturday.
TEECOM’s statement read, “It must be stated categorically and equivocally that; Waziri Atiku Abubakar, the Vice President Federal Republic of Nigeria (from) 1999-2007 was never a part of this purported consensus arrangement, neither did he at any time nor in any place, subject himself to any purported consensus process.
“Therefore, Waziri Atiku Abubakar is not bound by any of the recommendations and conclusions of the purported report.”
It stressed that Atiku never believed in any consensus arrangement because it would further widen and deepen the regional, zonal, and ethno-religious “wounds that urgently need to be healed,” in the country.
Similarly, ex-Jigawa State and chieftain of the PDP, Sule Lamido, said the selection of two consensus candidates by the NEF was not the position of the party, but “a personal opinion of those who issued the statement.”
The PDP chieftain lamented that “the position of the northern elders is not only injurious to the North but equally injurious to the northern aspirants”
A statement made available to one of our correspondents by Lamido on Saturday, said due consultations with members of the party across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory showed that the recent consensus arrangement did not represent the North.
He said there were current engagements by aspirants of the party to have a possible “national consensus” or an acrimony-free contest at the national convention.
