Convention: PDP will come out strong to receive all willing to join — Tambuwal

Sokoto State Governor and Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, said the party would come out strong from its national convention to welcome those who join it.

Tambuwal said this when briefing reporters after the PDP stakeholder meeting held at Akwa lbom Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Friday evening.

Tambuwal said that although 90 percent was obtained on a consensus candidate, efforts were still underway to ensure a consensus candidate on all positions.

“You can see that practically all of the great leaders of our great party are here with the governors of various states under the control of our party where we received the last briefings on the convention.

“The congress committee assured us that everything is being done to ensure that we have a very successful and smooth congress. As we assured you yesterday, we are still working to achieve consensus on virtually all positions. So far we’ve reached 85 to 90 percent of that.“By God, the work is still in progress.

“Our leaders will continue to engage with the remaining competitors and see how we can best build and achieve that consensus By God, PDP is back in full force and at the end of the convention, from tomorrow to Sunday we will have a repositioned PDP that we will be ready to have many more people joining this party as soon as possible,” says Tambuwal.

Positions for which the party does not yet have a consensus candidate include the National Vice President (South), the National Youth Leader and the National Auditor. PDP leaders present at the meeting include outgoing Vice President Namadi Sambo, who is attending a PDP function for the first time since leaving office in 2015; and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.

Others include former Senate Presidents David Mark, Adolphus Wabara, and Pius Anyim; former PDP national president Okwesilieze Nwodo; and the former Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.

Also present were the former governors, Senator Sam Egwu (Ebonyi); Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Ibrahim Shema (Katsina); Babangida Aliyu (Niger); Peter Obi (Anambra); and Emeka Ihedioha (Imo), among others.

(NAN)