Ayu for chairman, Arapaja as deputy… PDP elects NWC members

Iyorchia Ayu, a former senate president, has been elected as the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ayu, who was earlier adopted as the consensus candidate for the position, won the election unchallenged with 3,426 votes.

Taofeek Arapaja, a former deputy governor of Oyo state, has also emerged as deputy national chairman (south).

Arapaja polled 2,004 votes to defeat  Olagunsoye Oyinlola, former governor of Osun state, who scored 705 votes.

For the position of the deputy national chairman (north), Umar Damagum, former governorship candidate of Yobe state, polled 2,222 votes to beat Inna Ciroma, former minister of women affairs from Borno state, who garnered 365 votes.

Muhammed Suleiman from Kaduna scored 3,072 votes to defeat Usman Elkudan, also from Kaduna, who scored 219 for the position of youth leader.

Only three out of the 21 national working committee (NWC) positions were contested, while consensus candidates were adopted for the remaining positions.

The other NWC positions include national secretary, deputy national secretary, national treasurer, deputy national treasurer, national financial secretary, deputy national financial secretary, national organising secretary, and deputy national organising secretary.

Others are national publicity secretary, deputy national publicity secretary, national auditor, deputy national auditor, national legal adviser, deputy national legal adviser, national women leader, deputy national women leader, and deputy national youth leader.

The candidates were declared duly elected by Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of Adamawa state and chief returning officer of the election.

In his remarks, Ayu said the opposition party is back to rescue Nigeria from the “terrible mess” the country has been pushed into.

He added that Nigerians will see a “mammoth crowd” defecting to the party in the coming days.