PDP and R-APC leaders meet at Saraki's house in Ilorin to find anti-Buhari consensus candidate

PEOPLES Democratic Party (PDP leaders and members of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC) met in Ilorin yesterday in what political commentators have described as a summit aimed at fielding a unity candidate against President Muhammadu Buhari next year.

In February 2019, Nigeria will go to the polls, with President Buhari certain the flagbearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Unhappy with the way the government has sidelined party members in this decision, several members of the ruling party have formed the R-APC and have threatened to join the PDP with a view to firming a united front against President Buhari.

Yesterday, what was meant to be a gathering to pray for a politician’s mother, turned into a full blown political summit as leaders of both political bodies. Among those who attended the two hour meeting yesterday were the PDP national chairman Prince Uche Secondus and the senate president Senator Bukola Saraki.

At the event, some APC and PDP leaders took advantage of the prayer for the repose of the soul of Alhaja Aishat Baraje, the mother of Kawu Baraje, a leader of the R-APC to fine tune their defection plans.

APC deputy national chairmen Lawal Shuaibu (north) and Adeniyi Adebayo (south) attended the prayer session too but the governors and the PDP chiefs thereafter held a private session at the Ilorin home of the senate president. Senator Saraki arrived to Ilorin received by a large crowd, obviously to make a political statement.

Among those at the session were governors Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (Sokoto).  Others were presidential aspirant and former Jigawa State governor Sule Lamido, Senator Barnabas Gemade and speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly Ali Ahmad.

One eyewitness said: “After the prayer session for Baraje’s mother, we felt it necessary to discuss mutual issues bordering on the talks between the PDP and R-APC. Our talks centred on how some APC and R-APC leaders will join forces in 2019 to change the status quo.

"It is certainly convenient for PDP at this bend to woo potential defectors who might add value to its electoral value in 2019. All these leaders are heavyweights who PDP cannot gloss over, so, the meeting was to consolidate ongoing negotiation ahead of mass defections from APC to the main opposition party.”

It was learnt that the PDP had agreed to hand over the structure of the party to Senator Saraki, sharing of party’s position on 60-40  or 40-60  ratio and the concession of  two senate seats and the governorship slot to Saraki’s camp and R-APC in Kwara. On Governor Ortom and Senator Gemade, the source said the PDP has now opened talks with the Benue governor as part of steps to consolidate its grip in the north central geo-political zone, targeting Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa and Niger states and the Federal Capital Territory.