Former Senate President Bukola Saraki from Kwara State and Senator Gabriel Suswam from Benue State have emerged as the front-runners for the national chairmanship position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

This is as the North Central Caucus of the PDP has started consultations among party leaders to produce a national chairperson from the zone to complete the truncated tenure of Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu.

Already, consultations among party leaders from the zone have reached an advanced stage.

A usually reliable party source told Vanguard, “We expect the zone to announce their choice before our NEC.”

It was also learnt that party leaders from the zone met in Abuja last week to fine-tune strategies to present a common front and avoid acrimony.

Those at the crucial meeting included party executives from across the six states, including the Federal Capital Territory that makes up the North Central Zone, as well as selected elected representatives.

As a fallout of the meeting, it was reliably gathered that those in attendance agreed that the North Central should serve out what is left of Ayu’s term
A source at the meeting explained that Plateau State Governor Caleb Muftwang is expected to convene a meeting of the Zonal Caucus to put the final touches to the strategy on how this can be achieved.

The source said, “With the litigations over the 2023 elections now over, we expect the party leadership to do the needful to reposition our party for better performance.

“Ayu’s time as Chairman has effectively ended, and we, in the North Central, have put our heads together and agreed that his replacement should come from among us because the position which was zoned to us in 2023 still subsists. The constitution of our great party makes it so.

“We have been holding meetings on this issue. If you will recall, our State Chairmen met here in Abuja, after a meeting with the NWC last Wednesday.”

The PDP chairmanship position was zoned to the North Central ahead of the 2023 general election, and Ayu emerged unopposed.