PDP Govs' Parley on Consensus Chairman Deadlocked

By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu

After about seven hours closed-door meeting in Enugu, governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday failed to arrive at a consensus for the party’s national chairmanship position in readiness for the December 9 convention.

Though the meeting, which started at about 5:30pm and lasted till midnight, had planned to possibly reduce the number of aspirants from eight to possibly two or three, it however failed to achieve the aim.

In the place of a consensus, the meeting presided over by the Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum and Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose extracted a commitment from the aspirants to support whoever finally emerges as the party’s chairman at the convention.

Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting which also had in attendance notable party leaders and seven out of the eight chairmanship aspirants, Governor Fayose said the atmosphere and team spirit that manifested in the meeting demonstrated the party’s resolve to take over power by 2019.

“Our chairmanship aspirants have agreed to work together. Whosoever emerges as the chairman of the party will be supported by all of us. We met in Enugu State Government House to deliberate on our national convention and we took time off to meet with the chairmanship aspirants, believing that we want to have a convention that all parties in Nigeria will emulate; a convention that will represent the word democracy and serve as template for other parties,” he said.

Details later…