Ahead of the National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party, Northern Elders on Saturday constituted a 16-man committee to screen aspirants from the zone jostling for party elective offices.
The Northern elders premised their decision to screen aspirants from the zone on the need to ensure only competent persons from the North occupied offices zoned to the North in the PDP.
The PDP national caretaker committee had earlier zoned 21 available national offices between the South and the North.
Speaking at the end of a meeting of PDP Northern Elders on Saturday in Abuja, Chairman of the forum, Professor Jerry Gana, said the committee would be expected to liaise with the party’s secretariat and obtain list of all aspirants from the north for screening.
The committee, according to Gana, was expected to submit its findings on Tuesday in Port Harcourt.
“This committee will help to screen, discuss, interact with the aim of considering in the interest of PDP and the north.
“You are expected to recommend the best candidates” he said.
Also speaking, a former national chairman and former minister of Defence, Alhaji Haliru Bello, observed that the North would always give the leadership direction to the country.
Bello urged the forum to continue on the tripod on which the nation had been standing.
He told the gathering that votes of the PDP ensured President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015, saying, “Wihout the five governors who moved to APC, Buhari would not have won.
“Mistakes by the leadership and followership gave APC victory,” Bello said.
He therefore urged the party to close rank in order to reclaim power in 2019.
Northern chieftains of the party who attend the meeting included Ambassador Aminu Wali; former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu; former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido; former Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu and former governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa.
Senator Sahabi Yau; former governor of Katsina, Ibrahim Shema; former governor of Zamfara, Mahmud Shinkafi; former deputy governor of Sokoto state, Muktar Shehu Shagari; former governor of old Gongola state, Ambassador Wilberforce Juta and many others from the zone also attended the meeting.
