Members of the National Executive Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party loyal to President Goodluck Jonathan will be proposing an amendment to  the party’s constitution at   today’s NEC meeting.

  The amendment  will give the President  and  governors currently serving their first tenure automatic ticket for  the 2015 elections.

 It was gathered that  Jonathan’s loyalists would , through a motion  at the meeting, seek the inclusion of “the right of first refusal” in the party’s constitution.

 A source at the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat of the PDP Abuja, made this known just as the President met with  the Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko, and   PDP leaders from the South-West, including ex-convict, Chief Olabode George.

 The source said that if the motion, which is expected to be the high point of the crucial deliberations at the NEC meeting  was approved, it would be taken to the national convention of the PDP for ratification on August 31, 2013.

 Article 31, sub section (3) of the 2012 PDP Constitution as amended states,  “The decision of the NEC  shall be binding on all organs and members of the party.”

 It was learnt that the strategists of the President  had  arranged that the motion  should be moved by a distinguished politician from the North-West, who would be seconded by  another top politician  from the North- East.

 The PUNCH also gathered that  sustained efforts had been made to convince and co-opt state chapters of the PDP to embrace the idea.

 The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih,   had broached the idea of automatic tickets for the President and  other elected  office holders in the country in May.

Anenih, a staunch supporter of Jonathan, argued at a  party’s family dinner   in May  that the fight for  PDP’s  tickets had always generated intra- party bitterness and  tension  even before  main elections.

 A PDP NEC member, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Wednesday,  said “over 95 per cent of PDP members are in support of President Goodluck Jonathan vying for second term in office.”

He said, “All I know is that this doctrine of fresh refusal does not apply to President  Jonathan, who will remain the candidate of the PDP in 2015. Ninety-five per cent of PDP members are supporting him  to win the 2015 presidential election.”

When our correspondent contacted the Acting National Publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr. Tony Okeke, on the telephone,   he picked but declined  to make   any comments on the issue.

 • President meets Wamakko, PDP South- West leaders

 Meanwhile, one  of the five northern state governors, who  visited so