By Ben Agande, Abuja.

Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from the Northern part of the country have resolved to send a delegation to the chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to prevail on him not to contest the chairmanship position in the forthcoming convention of the party in the over all interest of the party.

Alimodu-Sheriff

The position was taken at the end of ‎a meeting of some prominent members of the party from the North held in Abuja Tuesday night.

According to a prominent member of the party from one of the Northern States who was in the meeting, the decision to send a delegation to Sheriff was taken in the interest of the party.

The member, a former Minister during the Obasanjo administration told Vanguard that “there appears to be a unanimity of opinion in the opposition against Sheriff’s continuation as chairman of the party.

“The opposition is not because of Sheriff as a person but the general interest of the party. The party’s national executive committee announced that it has zoned the presidency in 2019 to the north. It is ‎against the interest of the party and the North in particular to produce the chairman when the party has zoned the presidency to the north already.

“Moreover, the shady manner the zoning committee zoned the position to the north east is suspect. What was the criteria used? We believe that Sheriff used his position to influence the committee to do his bidding and this portend ill for the party. We cannot continue to be imposing candidates on the party when we know what imposition did to us in the 2015 elections. We cannot be talking of repositioning the party and then doing same thing that cost us the elections in 2015,” the chieftain said.