Information available to chidi opara reports from contacts close to the PDP BOT Chairman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo indicated that "the meeting is scheduled at the request of Mr. President to advise on how to approach the distribution of offices when the new assembly convenes on June 3rd, 2011". "I suspect that the meeting will come up on wednesday, but I am not so sure", an Obasanjo insider informed us on phone yesterday. None of our Presidency contacts could however confirm the Wednesday date, but all confirmed arrengements for the BOT meeting. The BOT is an influential advisory organ of Nigerian political parties.
chidi opara reports also leant that the PDP's South-East caucus of the House of Representatives will meet later today at a location we were not able to unravel at the time of preparing this report. A contact close to a member, Mr. Eziuche Ubani, from Abia State in South-Eastern Nigeria, who is bidding to be the next Speaker of the House Of Reptrsentatives, however told one of our network members in Umuahia earlier today that "today's meeting is to solidify our zone's bid for the Speakership".
We also leant authoritatively that there would be a PDP national stakeholders' meeting in Abuja on Monday or Tuesday also at the instance of the Presidency, before the BOT meeting, "to discuss the national assembly matter".
Meanwhile, chidi opara reports have confirmed that there is intense lobby on the Presidency mounted by the incumbent Senate President, Rtd. Brigadier-general David Mark to enlist the influence of the President to retain his plum position. The lobby, we can now report involves a respected traditional ruler from the President's home state, Bayelsa, who was in the military and had held a major political position during the military era in one of the present day South-South states.
