20 In Race To Succeed Mu’azu As PDP Chair

About 20 top members of the Peoples Democratic Party are warming up to contest for the national chairmanship of the party in August. National chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, had on May 20, 2015, resigned following pressure from the presidency and other party stakeholders and has been replaced with Uche Secondus, the party’s deputy national chairman in acting capacity.
Our correspondents learnt that most of those that showed interest in the position when it became vacant in 2014 following the sack of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur are currently warming up to test their popularity as the North-East still retains the seat in the PDP zoning formula.
They include former minister of transport, Abdullahi Idris Umar; former minister of state for power, Mohammed Wakil; national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Movement, (PDM) Senator Abubakar Mahdi; former adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on politics, Prof. Rufai Alkali. Our correspondent learnt that former minister of the federal Capital Territory, Bala Muhammad; former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission; Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as well as former presidential adviser Ahmed Ali Gulak  and former PDP vice chairman, Paul Wampana are also interested in vying for the position. Speaking with our correspondents yesterday, PDP deputy national publicity secretary, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, disclosed that the tenure of Mu’azu, a former governor of Bauchi State didn’t expire before his resignation, stressing that the party itself resolved that its next national chairman will come from the North-East geo-political zone where Mu’azu hails from.
Jalo said about 10 PDP members drawn from Bauchi, Taraba, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Gombe states are now jostling and strategizing to succeed Muazu. “The procedure is that the tenure of Alhaji Mu’azu who recently resigned has not expired so the next chairman will definitely come from the North East where Mu’azu hails. “There are more that 10 to 20 people aspiring for the position. So the North-East will still produce the next national chairman of the PDP because the tenure of Mu’azu didn’t expire before he resigned and this is in line with the constitution of the party,” Jalo said.
Secretary of the PDP BoT Walid Jibrin said the next PDP national chairman would emerge in August.
  “As you are aware, the appointment of the acting chairman is for three months and after three months we will sit again, because by our constitution, the Board of Trustees regulates its own activities. We will regulate our own activities when the time comes,” Jibrin has said.