PDP ‘plans credible presidential primary’

Each of the 12 presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will  nominate four persons into the accreditation and the electoral committees in the party’s upcoming convention.

PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, who broke the news  in Abuja yesterday, said each of the aspirants will nominate two persons to serve in the two committees.

According to Ologbondiyan, the move is to ensure that none of the aspirants is left in the dark in the process leading to the convention.

The spokesman added that besides involving the aspirants in the process, the party wanted to prove to the world that the PDP would always be democratic in the conduct of its internal affairs.

This, he said, is a clear departure from the past where aspirants were not allowed to nominate agents to represent them at delegates elections.

Ologbondiyan said, “The National Working Committee (NWC) has chosen to broaden the aspirants’ participation by proving them opportunity to nominate two people each into the accreditation and electoral committees respectively.

“Each of the presidential aspirant will nominate two people into the accreditation committee and another two into electoral committee. This is to ensure that none of the aspirants is left in the dark as to what the party is doing concerning the convention.

“The PDP will publish names of all the delegates and make same available to our presidential aspirants before the convention”.

The party spokesman assured that the PDP will produce a candidate with the capacity to quickly revamp the economy upon election as president.

He assured that the leadership of the PDP will maintain neutrality in the choice of the party’s flag bearer, adding that it’s the transparency of the process that would enhance the chances of the party in the 2019 presidential election.

“The PDP has no interest in a particular aspirant. We are hopeful that whoever emerges on Saturday will be a man with the economic wizardry to turn around the fortunes of this country.

“The party is out to make sure we have a credible primary election and the process will be clean, transparent and acceptable to majority of Nigerians”, he added.

The party spokesman allayed fears of possible post-convention crisis, saying however that should the situation arise, the party has an effective internal conflict resolution mechanism to deal with it.