7,000 delegates for PDP national convention

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 18.02.2008

No fewer than 7,000 delegates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will on March 8, elect the new national chairman of the party and other national officials.

The National Headquarters of the PDP has started compiling the names of the delegates and would make the list public as soon as the final compilation had been made.

The National Deputy Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Bayo Alao, in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune said it would be difficult to state the exact number of delegates who would be converging for the Convention as he said the National Organising secretary of the party would declare the real number at the appropriate time.

Meanwhile, a process of political horse-trading likely to prune down the number of Peoples Democratic (PDP) chairmanship candidates ahead of the National Convention of the party has started emerging following a meeting of some of the candidates in Abuja at the weekend.

Six of them who met at Febson Hotel, Zone 4 Abuja were hosted by Ambassador O Aja-Nwachukwu. They explored the possibility of pooling resources together to support one of them.

A PDP member who was present at the meeting, Alhaji Hammed Makama, told the Nigerian Tribune that the six aspirants whom he refused to name, might end up supporting Nwachukwu, judging by the nature of talks among them.

The aspirant also i confirmed that he had been meeting with some of the co-aspirants whom he described as like minds. He also refused to name anyone of them, saying the convention of the PDP “would bring forth some unbelievable surprises.”