By Olajide Meseko
Ahead of its October 31 national elective convention, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Thursday, took a significant step towards a possible hitch-free exercise following the emergence of Dr Iyorchia Ayu as the consensus chairmanship candidate of the North.
Ayu’s emergence was a product of intense lobby and reconciliation across board which led to withdrawal from the race of two other contestants, Ibrahim Shema and Senator Abdul Ningi.
Vanguard gathered that Ningi, former leader of the Senate was dragged to the race by Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi state to scuttle the aspiration of Senator Suleiman Nazif, incumbent deputy national chairman (North) of the PDP.
Nazif who never gets along with Governor Bala had reportedly boasted that no one would stop him from aspiring to lead the party in the new National Working Committee, NWC, expected to emerge after the October convention.
Determined to checkmate Nazif, the governor, our correspondent learnt, brought in Ningi and caused a good number of PDP faithful from the North-East to queue behind him.
As a result, Ningi joined former Katsina state governor, Ibrahim Shema who had earlier secured the nomination of the North-West. With all three zones gathered at the Bauchi state Governor’s lodge, supporters of Ayu made up of Ortom, former Senate Presidents, David Mark, Bukola Saraki and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, BoT of party, Senator Walid Jibrin amongst others, went into private meeting with Shema and Ningi, both of whom promptly opted out of the race, paving way for the emergence of Ayu.