By Henry Umoru, Abuja

*Contest may tear PDP apart

AHEAD of the election of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, strong indications emerged Saturday that stakeholders of the party are shopping for a dark horse that would go in line with the transformative agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

It was gathered that the support base of two frontline aspirants in the person of Acting National Secretary of PDP, Dr. Musa Babayo, and Alhaji Bamanga Tukur of the African Business Roundtable have continued to dominate the race of who becomes the new national chairman in February 2012.

A source disclosed that there are palpable fears that the two main aspirants: Babayo, who hails from Bauchi State and Tukur, from Adamawa if not properly managed, may tear the party apart, just as Jonathan is said to be supporting Tukur for the position of the PDP National Chairman while the governors of the PDP are said to be solidly behind Babayo.

According to a source in Abuja, “the scenario is like what happened during the March 8, 2008 national convention of the PDP, where former President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to be supporting former governor of Ebonyi State, Dr. Sam Egwu, while the governors of the party were said to be supporting former Senate president, Anyim Pius Anyim, and, at the end of the day, a dark horse in the person of the former national secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, emerged as the consensus national chairman.

The source said that the tension the contest is creating in the PDP may throw up a little known face, even as the former National Assembly Presidential Liaison Officer, Senator Baba Aji, is said to be under pressure to declare his interest in the PDP chairmanship as a consensus candidate.

Senator Aji, also a former managing director of the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), hails from Borno, same state with aspirants like the former minister of Defence, Dr. Shettima Mustapha, former national chairman of the Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), Ibrahim Biu.

Also interested in the position of National Chairman are the National Publicity Secretary, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali from Gombe State, though he said he was still consulting, former Minister of Education as well as Petroleum Resources, Professor Jubril Aminu, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar also from Gombe State, ex-Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ambassador Idris Waziri from Taraba State, among others.

The office of the National Chairman of the PDP is zoned to the North East zone.