WE DON’T WANT IT!! South-East PDP Rejects Zoning Of Presidential Ticket To North

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WE DON’T WANT IT!! South-East PDP Rejects Zoning Of Presidential Ticket To North

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South East zone, yesterday, rejected the rumoured zoning of the presidential ticket to the North in 2023.

National Vice Chairman, South East, Chief Austine Umahi, in a statement in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, said the decision on zoning of the presidential ticket has not been discussed by the leadership of the party.

Umahi was reacting to a recent statement by former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, that the PDP had zoned its 2023 presidential ticket to the North.

He said the former Benue governor “passed personal wishes” as the collective decision of the party, and urged the National Working Committee(NWC) of the party to quickly address Suswam’s coment for the interest of peace and unity of the party.

Umahi said no zone should be neglected or underrated in the decision-making process of the party, especially the South East, which he said had made tremendous sacrifices for the growth, wellbeing and survival of the PDP.

“As a member of the NWC of our great party, I am shocked and embarrassed at this disclosure, as the NWC had never discussed nor taken any such decision. As a political party, positions are only zoned in the PDP after they have been robustly debated by all six zones and unanimously agreed on as serving the best interest of the unity of the party and national exigencies. As such, the NWC of our party cannot allow Senator Suswam to pass across personal wishes as collective resolve, except if it is a case of the bird dancing by the road with the drummer lurking in the nearby bush. The statement amounts to one being a judge in his case, which offends all known laws of natural justice.”

Also, a leading pan-Igbo organisation, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation (ILDF), lambasted Suswam for saying the PDP would zone the office to the North in 2023, advising him not to insult Igbo sensibilities.

The group accused the former Benue governor of “uncanny and overly ambitious interests” and of “flying a dangerous kite that would finally sink the PDP.”

Suswam, in an exclusive interview on Sunday, held that since the PDP failed to win the 2019 presidential election, which it zoned to the North, the party would still retain the ticket in the region since it did not win.

A statement by director of public affairs for ILDF, Dr. Law Mefor, in Abuja, yesterday, queried the rationale behind Suswam’s claim that the PDP was bound to zone the President to the North in 2023.