There were strong indications at the weekend that Delta North Senatorial District of Delta State may lose the governorship ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2015 election.
Indications to this came out over the weekend with revelations of a closed-door meeting between traditional rulers from the district and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sunday Tribune learnt that one of the traditional rulers, who attended the meeting, expressed fears that “should our people continue to bicker over who gets the ticket, the Central and Southern senatorial districts may be emboldened to come out forcefully to make a case for the ticket within the party.”
It was gathered that at the meeting between the traditional rulers and President Jonathan, in August, the former presented the latter with a list of four shortlisted nominees.
According to one of the traditional rulers in attendance at the meeting held inside Aso Rock Villa, “President Jonathan accorded us the appropriate respect, but made us understand that we needed to work with our state governor.
“Although he never said we should go and kowtow before our state governor, he made us understand that we needed to engage in consensus building and that the governor was better placed, working with us, to make that possible.”
Sunday Tribune further learnt that of the list of the shortlisted aspirants, no member of the present State Executive Council was interviewed or screened by the traditional rulers.
This, it was learnt, did not make sense to President Jonathan.
It was also discovered that in the last two weeks, stakeholders from the two other senatorial districts have stepped up consultations and strategies with a view to ‘expunging’ the unwritten clause of allowing the North to produce the next governor of the state.
However, it was learnt that leaders in the North district are also not resting on their oars.
A source confided in our reporter that “consultations are on to find a common ground between what the traditional rulers desire, what the governor may counsel and what President Jonathan may settle for.”
Source: Tribune
