* Want him at their next meeting

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

The forum of 150 top northern leaders who met in Abuja on Thursday night for the purpose of having a northern president in 2011 is now courting Major-General Muhammadu Buhari to be part of the group, having left him out of the maiden meeting.

The group, which is insisting on PDP’s adherence to its zonal policy, says the Presidency should reside in the north until 2015.

At Thursday’s meeting were the likes of General Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, General Aliyu Gusau, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Gen. David Jemibewon and Chief Audu Ogbeh, among others.

Muhammadu Buhari

But conspicuously missing there was Gen. Buhari who, a source said last night, did not attend because his name was inadvertently omitted.

The source said the group was reaching out to him to be part of the next meeting not only because he is a former head of state of northern extraction but also on the strength of his status in the polity.

“The meeting was originally scheduled for early May but the movers wanted an all encompassing body for the north”, the source said.

“Even as we speak, the membership is still not considered broad enough”..

Five delegates from each of the 19 northern states attended Thursday’s meeting.

Professor Iyorchia Ayu, speaking to reporters at the end of the meeting, said three committees were set up to reach out to other parts of the country for mobilisation.

A source close to the meeting said it was largely an Atiku group and most of the members are of PDP extraction.