By Dansu Peter
The Presidential ambition of the former Senate President, David Mark may have been quelled by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the party have ruled out it Presidential candidate would come from the long marginalized minority north central, the zone that the former Senate President belongs, News Punch has learned reliably
The revelation was made last night according to The nation Newspaper. It was learned from party sources that PDP leaders have ruled out giving the ticket to the North-Central because of its “weak voting strength and the Northern minority factor.”
David Mark is from Benue State, a north central of Nigeria.
A top party source said: “We are only weighing options on whether the slot should go to the Northwest or the Northeast.
“Most of our leaders prefer the Northwest to give President Muhammadu Buhari or his anointed candidate a good fight.
“Although a few of our leaders want the slot for the North-East, there are fears that some defectors from the zone might hijack the ticket. We need to be careful.
“To checkmate these defectors from APC and other parties, our leaders are pushing for stringent terms for getting certain things, including elective post tickets, from the party.
“We will certainly work on a limited or restricted waiver for defectors. We won’t allow those who sought to destroy our party to return through the back door and appropriate our tickets at all levels.” The source said party leaders would avoid a situation where the issue of 2019 presidential ticket would “divide us at the August 12 national convention.”
The source added: “Our leaders have resolved to extend the tenure of Makarfi led Caretaker Committee by three months.
“We believe by November, we would have done enough consultations and put our house in order to decide the zone (between North-West and North-East) which will produce our presidential candidate”
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