PDP Chairman, Ahmed Makarfi
PDP Insists on Zoning of Key Positions
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it has zoned key positions in the party between North and Southern Nigeria.
However, the opposition party in Nigeria said each zone could micro-zone the positions allotted to them as they might wish.
In press conference today in Abuja, the party said any issue not resolved by zones till their expected convention would be resolved at the convention.
The party also clarified issues relating to the just concluded Anambra election and its committee membership.
“Our attention has been drawn to recent statements by some of our candidates seeking for elective party offices. We take all such statements or expressions in good faith. However, we must clarify a number of issues:
ZONING
We at Wadata only officially recognize what the Convention and NEC have done. That is zoning of positions between the North and the South.
We however recognize that both North and South may politically micro zone positions to geo-political zones and the geo-political zones to states.
The North micro-zoned and other zones are micro-zoning without recourse to PDP Headquarters.
We also understand that the South of recent is doing so but up to now have not been able to reach agreement on Chairmanship and Deputy Chairman. If this is not sorted out before the Convention it means the matter can only be settled at the Convention.
As democrats and also to avoid imposition against the wish of the majority, we have opened the race to all aspirants who disagree with the micro-zoning. Therefore sale of forms has been and will continue to be open to all within the context of North/South that NEC took a decision on.
COMMITTEES MEMBERSHIP
On membership of Committees supervising the congresses in respective states and the FCT we never took nominations from any candidate but from the States and other organs of the Party.
We wish to remind all that it’s the State Chapters that actually conduct congresses. The Committees only compile the results and attend to Appeals after which they file their reports to the Party Headquarters.
When all reports are filed by the Committees, we shall summon the States Chairmen to come with their copies and reconfirm the results at a date to be fixed and all bonafide interest groups will be welcomed to witness it. This is to reassure everybody that validly elected delegates list is not tampered with.
Commenting specifically on the issues raised by Chief Bode George through his Director-General and Prof. Tunde Adeniran, we wish to state that Chief Bode George assertions were wild and not specific.
However, Prof. Adeniran’s letter specifically mentioned 5 names out of about 216 names. While assuring him that we shall pay special attention to the places they were posted to, but we did not and could not interview the members to know their linings before calling on them to serve. Its most likely that some of the remaining 211 members are aligned to some other persons seeking elective offices including himself and Chief Bode George.
It pains us that on the one hand Chief Bode George who is fully aware of the pains we are still going through in Lagos in order to fairly and equitably carry everybody on board to the extent that we are been accused by others as siding with him is the same person accusing us of impunity.
On the preparations for the Convention, we have asked Chairmanship aspirants to make input so that they have their eyes and ears in each Committee. It was only Chief Bode George that did not attend the meeting we had with the aspirants.
ANAMBRA ELECTIONS AND CONTINUING CASTIGATIONS BY SEN. BURUJI KASHAMU
We do agree that the Anambra issue is a self inflicted injury which has been with the State since after the 2003 general elections
Irrespective of the perfections or imperfections of our Party primaries and the outcome, PDP Anambrarians had developed conflicting mindsets. We did our best to bring all under one Caretaker Committee hoping that things will work out well.
Here, we need to remind PDP members and Nigerians that it was Sen. Kashamu and those he was bankrolling that conducted parallel congresses in Edo and Ondo States. They did not stop there but took us up to Supreme Court and in the end openly endorsed and campaigned for our opponents. Their actions made us to loose the elections.
The public should however recall we neither conducted parallel congress in the Osun Senatorial bye-election nor did we campaign for our opponents. We rather directed everybody to work for the Party nominee and he won. You can clearly see who have been undermining the Party’s chances at elections.
In conclusion, we assure everybody that we shall continue to put in our best as we have done in the past seventeen months.
We remain open to attend to anybody with issues to discuss or seek clarifications provided such a person has bonafide interest in such matters”, said the party’s Publicity Secretary, Dayo Adeyeye.