Former Senate President Iyorchia Ayu has emerged as the consensus chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ayu emerged after hours of interaction by PDP stakeholders from the North.
PDP leaders from the 19 states met in the Bauchi Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro and ratified the adoption of Dr Iyorchia Ayu as candidate.
This was after he was presented to the entire North, by the leaders of the party from the North Central zone.
Speaking after his emergence, Dr Ayu assured stakeholders that he will reposition and strengthen the party towards reclaiming power it earlier lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the 2023 elections.
He stressed that under his leadership, no one can use money to buy his conscience and no single man will own PDP.
“PDP belongs to all, not one man,” Ayu declared!
Ayu earlier emerged North Central consensus candidate
Party leaders and stakeholders from the North Central zone had Tuesday, announced the former Senate President as their consensus candidate for the position.
Among those from the North-Central who indicated interest for the position were Professor Jerry Gana, former Senate President David Mark, Ayu, former Kogi State Governor Ibrahim Idris, and former Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu.
Ayu, however, got the nod of party elders and leaders from the zone at the meeting.
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, who is currently the only PDP Governor from the North Central zone, announced the decision after a meeting of stakeholders which held at the Benue State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, late on Tuesday.
Ortom, who briefed reporters after the meeting, said, “This is stakeholders’ meeting of central PDP in continuation of finding consensus candidates for the national chairmanship of a party.
“Looking for someone with the capacity with the commitment, love and passion for our party. We met here for several hours.
“Among the five persons that were contesting, the leadership of our party from North Central unanimously agreed to sponsor former Senate President Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman of our party.”
Shema, Nazif, Makarfi represent their zones
A candidate each had earlier emerged from the North Central, North West, and North-East geo-political zones.
A former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema defeated other aspirants to emerge from the North West, Senator Suleiman Nazif from Bauchi State, who is the current PDP Deputy National Chairman (North), emerged as the sole candidate from the North East and the North Central chose former Senate President, Iyorchia Ayu from Benue State.
To emerge, Shema got votes from 6 out of 7 states from his zone, leaving his closest challenger, former Kaduna State governor, Ahmed Makarfi with votes just from his home state of Kaduna.
Nazif on his part had no challenger and emerged the sole candidate from his region.
The expanded Northern stakeholders meeting summoned to elect a substantive national chairman on Wednesday couldn’t hold, because of the inability of some elders to attend.
The meeting was then shifted to Thursday, where Ayu emerged as consensus candidate.
