Northern PDP presidential aspirants meet over consensus candidate

By OLAIDE AYINDE

Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, says that all the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopefuls from the North are ready for a consensus candidate during the party’s primaries without acrimony.

He gave the assurance in Bauchi on Sunday when Saraki and Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, also a PDP presidential hopeful, paid a consultative visit to Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State.

Saraki, who addressed the media on behalf of the three presidential hopefuls, said they found it necessary as stakeholders of the party to meet, brainstorm and see how things could best work out among them.

He said: “In doing so, we met and discussed that for 2023 ahead of us, the unity and stability of the country and the growth of the country is more important than individual ambitions.

“We also met to strive for the need for us to work together. We believe that the three of us are working together harmoniously, committed and with a lot of energy, there will be great hope for this country going ahead.

“We appreciate that the three of us have shown aspiration to lead this country, but we also come to realise that we are all capable, competent and fit to lead this country.

“At the end of the day, it is only one person that will lead this country in 2023; and we also resolved that we are going to work closely to ensure that we come out with a way that consensus arrangement would come among the three of us on how to go forward into leading this country.

He added that they also believed that their role was to make things easier for them to have stability in the party, saying if there is stability in PDP, there would be stability in Nigeria.

The former governor of Kwara, however, urged all the PDP supporters to remain focussed and united in order to uplift the party to greater heights.

Saraki explained that the three of them would also meet with former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to brief him about the discussions they had during the meeting in Bauchi. (NAN)