By Emeka Nze
Abuja
Against the backdrop of too many South-west aspirants in the race for the chairmanship of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Board of Trustees (BOT) caucus has pruned down the number to three, with a view to picking one of them as a consensus candidate for the office .
This was contained in a document dated November 3, 2017 and signed by a member of the BOT and a onetime Deputy National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun, on behalf of other members.
The document was made available to newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
According to the document, the three shortlisted for the December 9 contest are; Prof Taoheed Adedoja, one time Sports and Special Duties Minister, Chief Olabode George, former National Vice and Deputy Chairman of the party and Prof Tunde Adeniran, former Education Minister.
Incidentally, the three short listed aspirants are founding members of the party and the duo of George and Adeniran are members of BoT.
Those that were knocked out of the race, according to the document are; Sen. Rashidi Ladoja, former Oyo state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, former Ogun state governor, Prof Wale Oladipo, immediate National Secretary of the party, Jimi Agbaje, the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Lagos in the 2015 election, and Akin-Deko Akintayo from Ondo state.
The document said the caucus picked Chief Bode George to represent Ogun-Lagos axis, Prof Toaheed Adedoja from Osun-Oyo axis and Prof. Tunde Adenirn from Ekiti and Ondo axis, respectively.
The caucus said its action was informed by the “numerous calls and wise counsel from several quarters to prune down the number of contestants to a manageable number.”
The caucus also seeks “to improve the chance of South West to clinch the position of the national chairman of the party at the convention and to “assist the voting process on the election day”.
Other reasons for pruning down the number of aspirants is to “reduce tension, rancour and friction that may rise before, during and after the Convention among the winner and other contestants and to “reduce expenditure for non-recommended contestants.
The caucus also wanted to.”Present manageable list of contestants from the South West to compete favourably with any other contestant (s) from any other Zone (s)from the south, “to avoid splitting of votes among contestants from the South West and “to provide soft landing for non-recommended aspirants.”
The caucus however promised that efforts were on top gear to prune the shortlisted to only single one after further wide consultations ahead of the National Convention slated for December 9 this year in Abuja.
