Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have collectively rejected the consensus option for picking the party’s presidential candidate.
They have insisted that all the 12 presidential aspirants must go through primary election for a winner to emerge.
The governors however agreed on the choice of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital as venue of its convention where the party’s presidential candidate will emerged. The convention is billed to hold from October 5-6.
The resolutions were adopted after a marathon meeting of the governors, under the platform of the PDP Governors’ Forum.
The party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) had earlier canvassed the consensus option and had even resolved to meet the 12 presidential aspirants any time this week to persuade them to agree on consensus.
But the governors were said to have reasoned that the consensus option could trigger crisis that might throw the party into turbulence and that they wanted the most popular among the aspirants to emerge through the ballot.
Those in the race for the presidential ticket of the PDP are former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwabo; President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki; former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido; former Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi; and a former Special Duties Minister, Tanimu Turaki.
Others are a former President of the Senate, David Mark; a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; a former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa; a former Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang; and a former senator, Dr. Baba Datti Ahmed.