TheCable

Bukola Saraki, former senate president, on Wednesday, led a delegation of presidential hopefuls seeking to contest on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on a visit to Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers. 

The meeting was held behind closed-doors at the Rivers state government house in Port Harcourt.

Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, a former managing director of FSB International Bank, as well as Aminu Tambuwal and Bala Mohammed, governors of Sokoto and Bauchi, respectively, were part of the delegation.

TheCable had reported that Saraki, Tambuwal, and Mohammed had agreed to settle for a consensus presidential candidate to fly the party’s flag.

Saraki and the delegation have been consulting chieftains of the party to support a consensus arrangement ahead of the May 28 election to elect a presidential candidate.

Wike had, in March, declared his intention to contest the presidency in the 2023 general election.

On Tuesday, Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, and Ifeanyi Okowa, his counterpart in Delta, expressed their support for the arrangement after a visit by the delegation.

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, had also supported the proposal for the party to present a consensus presidential candidate.

According to a statement by Kelvin Ebiri, his spokesman, Wike, who did not disclose his position on consensus, said aspirants will be united in the interest of the party.

“Our interest is the unity of the party. Our interest is to make Nigerians happy by making sure that by 2023, PDP takes over the reins of government because Nigerians are patiently waiting,” he was quoted as saying.

“And I can assure you that we are going to work as a team to make Nigerians happy.”

In his remarks, Saraki said the meeting focused on how to unite the presidential aspirants.

“We are here to have a discussion and we just finished talking about the best way for us to reunite our party, bring unity among all those who are aspiring to lead this country under PDP,” he said.

“We all realise the importance of this and PDP is the only option ready to redirect this country in the right direction and bring progress and provide a better future for our people.

“We have been to some of the other states and today we are here with governor of Rivers State, a key stakeholder of this party to discuss frankly.

“He has given us his views and made some suggestions and we will continue to work with that as we move away from here. But the key thing is unity; the key thing is to put the country first and put the party first.”

See photos of the visit below.