The Board of Trustees (BoT) of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday approved the nomination of the former Acting National Chairman of the party, Dr Haliru Bello Mohammed, as its acting Chairman.

The Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, told State House Correspondents at the end of the BoT meeting in Abuja that Mohammed, who was the only nominee for the position, would act in that capacity until a substantive BoT Chairman was elected.

He said that very soon the party would convene a meeting where both the national chairman and the BoT chairman would be elected.

He also said that the acting chairman of the party, Chief Uche Secondus, would continue in that capacity until a substantive chairman was elected.

Mohammed also told the correspondents that he was very happy to accept the responsibility for the period to start the process of repositioning the party towards the 2019 general elections.

He said that the executive powers of the party still resided with the National Working Committee (NWC) while the BoT would act as the conscience of the party and advise the NWC on how to move the party forward.

“We are determined that we will pull our ideas. Most of what remains as the founding fathers of the PDP is in the BOT.

“Therefore, we will make sure that we use their collective wisdom to also reach out to all our members in all the states of the federation so that we will bring the party back to the grassroots.

“We are sending this party back to the people and with what we have seen in the last 16 years our relationship with the people of Nigeria we are confident that the PDP will still remain the largest party in Africa and certainly the party of choice in Nigeria,” he said.

The Acting National Chairman, Secondus, in his contribution said the acting officials would collaborate with the party to take the party back to the grassroots.

He said: “By so doing we are going to reinvent and reposition ourselves for the new position of PDP to provide vibrant, robust and constructive opposition.”

The National Secretary of the BoT, Sen. Walid Jubrin, said the acting officials would be in office for about three months as the appointments were a temporary measure to reposition the party.

Jubrin said that President Goodluck Jonathan had declined to serve as the Acting chairman of the BOT which informed the nomination of Mohammed to fill the vacuum created by the resignation of the former chairman, Chief Tony Aneni.

He said the BOT and the NWC would sit down to take a decision on when to fix the convention of the party where substantive officers to occupy the vacant positions would be elected. (NAN)

•Photo shows Mohammed

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