The wedding ceremony of the daughter of former governor of Niger State, Engr. Abdulkadir Kure, on Saturday turned into a political meeting. Former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, and other former governors from the North and some senators held a closed-door meeting shortly before the wedding fatiha in Lapai, Niger State.

The meeting had in attendance, chairman, PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Jibril Walid, former governors of Niger State, Kure and Muazu Babangida Aliyu; former governor of Kano State, Ibrahim Shekarau; Senator Philip Aduda, former Senators Smart Adeyemi and Isah Mohammed. New Telegraph gathered that the intent of the meeting was not unconnected with the current search for a northern presidential candidate by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) come 2019.

Indication to this emerged when the mammoth crowd, on sighting the dignitaries coming out of the meeting, began to shout ‘Sai Kwankwaso, Sai Kwankwasia, Sai Kadawo PDP, insha Allah’ (meaning Kwankwaso, you must come back to PDP.) None of those at the meeting agreed to speak to the press as they headed straight to the mosque for the commencement of the wedding fatiha administered by the Chief Imam of Lapai Central Mosque, Sheik Alkali Bashir Lapai.

When pressed further for an interview, the PDP BoT chairman, Walid, confirmed that the presidency has been zoned to the north for 2019 and, therefore, the search for a credible candidestination date has begun. According to him, “we have zoned the Presidency to the north, but the vice president and other positions have not been zoned yet because we are still consulting.”

Walid added that the party is on a reconciliation drive to ensure all aggrieved members including those that had left the PDP (including Kwankwaso) come back so that the PDP can win the 2019 Presidency.

Meanwhile, Walid has stated that the PDP failed in the last general elections because the northern leaders deceived Nigerians and pushed former President Goodluck Jonathan into completing the remaining two years of late Umaru Yar’Adua. Speaking with journalists, Walid said a repeat of the 2015 defeat is about to happen if Senator Ali Modu Sheriff remains as national chairman of the party.

According to him, “we deceived ourselves from the beginning. That is why we failed the elections and we paid for it very dearly. We deceived the northerners, the people of the party. We are all parties to the downfall of the party in the North. “Most of us that served under Jonathan, helped to manoeuvre and cheat our brothers. This time, we are seeking for forgiveness from the north on what we have done.”