The People’s Democratic Party’s National Caretaker Committee Chairman Senator Ahmed Makarfi has debunked rumors making waves that the party extended special concession to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to convince him to return to the party.
Makarfi disclosed this yesterday during the inauguration of the PDP Convention Planning Committee and sub- committees when a group under the umbrella of Northern Elders and Leaders forum pushed for the emergence of the party’s national chairmanship aspirants from the South-west region.
According to Makarfi, Atiku never asked for any concession from the National Caretaker Committee prior to his return to PDP and neither did PDP extend any special concession to Atiku and the party will not extend any special concession to any other person.
The national caretaker committee chairman in his speech during the inauguration said “we conceded nothing to him and we never gave him anything, party members reserve the right to give mandate to anyone they wish to give their mandate to.”
Senator Walid Jibrin, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, while exonerating the BOT from speculations making rounds that some BOT members were sponsoring a particular chairmanship candidate, also hinted on the BOT’s plans for the convention disclosed that the board is ready to partner with the National Working Committee, Governors Forum and all other stakeholders in the party to ensure a smooth conduct of the convention. BoT has no hidden agenda. He said.
In the same spirit the Delta state governor who doubles as the convention planning committee chairman Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa while speaking at the inauguration said “I want to urge aspirants vying for various offices of the party to please keep their campaigners away from the convention venue and we believe all campaigns would have stopped by Friday. For those who want to campaign for future elections, especially the Presidential aspirants, this convention is not the place to display campaign posters or to display their intentions. I believe there will be an appropriate convention for that. I want to urge them to cooperate with us as a committee,”
Meanwhile there are strong indications that the Northern Elders and Leaders Forum will only support chairmanship aspirants from the south-west and will elect the best hands from the north.
