Governor Diri is the only aspirant for the party ticket.

Nigeria's main opposition party, The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has appointed a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki as chairman of the party's ward congress electoral committee in Bayelsa State.

The committee is to conduct ward congress to elect three ad-hoc delegates that would later elect the governorship candidate of the party in the state.

In a statement on Tuesday by the National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, the PDP named Gabriel Onyewife as a secretary while Sunday Katung, Danjuma Danladi and Mammy Balami are to serve as members of the committee.

"The Congresses are scheduled for 28 and 29 March in each of the 105 Wards in Bayelsa State," Mr Bature said.

PREMIUM TIMES last week reported that the party had cleared the incumbent governor, Duoye Diri for the forthcoming party governorship primary.

Mr Diri is the only aspirant for the party ticket.

Oil-rich Bayelsa is one of the states in the country where the Independent National Electoral Commission has scheduled 11 November for the conduct of its governorship election.

The state is one of the PDP's strongholds in the South-south region of the country.

However, the party lost the state to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) during the November 2019 governorship election.

David Lyon, the APC candidate was declared the winner of the election.

But a Federal High Court in Abuja on the eve Mr Lyon's inauguration as governor disqualified the APC deputy governorship candidate, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, from participating in the governorship election for providing conflicting information in his documents to INEC.

Following the disqualification, the PDP which came second in the election regained power in the state.

In the just concluded general elections, the PDP won all three senatorial seats in the state.

It also won four out of five House of Representatives seats and 20 out of the 24 seats in the State Assembly.