TheCable

Haliru Bello, former acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has emerged acting chairman of the party’s board of trustees.

Bello succeeds Anenih, who resigned on May 20.

President Goodluck Jonathan was expected to fill the position in the same way former president Olusegun Obasanjo became the party’s BoT chairman at the end of his tenure in 2007, but Jonathan declined, despite Anenih’s offer to leave the position for him.

In his resignation letter to Jonathan, Anenih had expressed willingness to see Jonathan succeed him.

“Your excellency will recall that in a conversation I had with you a few weeks ago, I had offered to step down from the office of the chairman of our party’s board of trustees and proposed to hand over to you as its new chairman in a ceremony that would have taken place on the 23rd of May, 2015. I had also repeated this position in our subsequent meetings,” he said.

“As a follow up to the above proposal and in view of the current state of affairs in our party, I have decided to formally put my offer in writing to enable you effectively assume the Chairmanship of Board of Trustees or approve a process that will enable any other member of the BoT who is considered competent, to assume the position., following the resignation of Chief Tony Anenih.”

The new chairman was a former comptroller-general of customs and one-time commissioner at the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

Obasanjo appointed him of minister of communication in 2001 and he also served as the minister of defence under Jonathan.

In 2008, he was national vice-chairman of the party in the northwest zone.

Bello was also deputy national chairman of the party.