PDM tips Lot, Gabam, others as guber candidates

Daily Trust learnt from a reliable source within the party, that Atiku , who is believed to be the sponsor of the PDM party, has decided to retain the structure of the party, rather than collapsing it into the APC to allow the party have a taste of election and for it to sell itself to the general public.
The target, according to the source, is for the PDM to emerge as the third force in political circles after the PDP and APC.
Sponsors of the party it was learnt, decided at a recent meeting, to rather maximize their opportunities in the 2015 election by concentrating its resources on winning a few states as well as some senatorial and House of representatives  and state assembly seats so that it would be ahead of parties like the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Labour Party which only have a governor each and few federal legislators, rather than attempt to take all the states.
One of the strategies of the party it was further learnt, is to solidify its structures in states where the PDP and APC are bound to be bogged in fighting or are expected to clash, so that the PDM would take opportunity of the crisis to clinch the seats in those areas.
These include states like Bauchi, Katsina, Adamawa, kano, Plateau, Lagos and Benue.
The party  was said to have been goaded by the fact that  in the 2011 elections, states like kano, Katsina Bauchi and Adamawa would have been taken by a third force if one had existed due to the internal squabbles within the dominant parties in those states.
PDM stakeholders felt that the PDP won those states because there was no ready alternative.
“This time, there would be a third force and we expect the PDM to fill that gap that is why we are not dissolving the structure but retaining it, so that  we can win in such states,” the source said.
Daily Trust learnt that Plateau was included in the projection as there is likely to be disenchantment if the state governor decides to pick the PDP candidate from the Northern senatorial zone of the state where he bails from as he is said to be planning.
“You know due to the sentiments in Plateau, a party like the APC may not be accepted so the PDM would serve as the alternative party,” the source said.
The source said, already, Chief Sylvanus Lot, who hails from the Central zone of the state has been penciled down as the party’s gubernatorial candidate for the 2015 elections while in Bauchi the party is considering giving its ticket to Alhaji Shehu Gabam, who worked as Governor Isa Yuguda’s chief of staff in 2007.
PDM national publicity when called declined comment on the matter.