Ahead of its presidential primary slated for May 29, 2022, the Peoples Democratic Party has set up zoning committees across the 36 states with a view to ensuring that the seat is zoned to the region that will boost its chances of winning the presidential election next year.
This comes barely days after the PDP began the sale of its presidential form, which is pegged at N40m.
According to a list obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, Governor Samuel Ortom will represent Benue State in the zoning committee, while former governor Ayodele Fayose will represent Ekiti State. A former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George, will represent Lagos, while Governor Ifeanyi Uguwanyi will represent Enugu State.
Others in the committees are former governor Sule Lamido (Jigawa), ex-governor Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), Senator Jonah Jang (Plateau), Governor Darius Ishaku (Taraba), Chief Tom Ikimi (Edo), former governor Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto), ex-governor Mohammed Makarfi (Kaduna), former governor Boni Haruna (Adamawa) and House of Representatives Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu (Delta).
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Debo Ologunagba, however, told one of correspondents in an interview that while he could confirm that the PDP was putting together a zoning committee, he could not confirm the authenticity of the list obtained by The PUNCH.
“The only list that is authentic is the one that will come from the national publicity secretary or official organs of the party, and so far, this has not been released,” he said.
In a chat with The PUNCH on Sunday, George confirmed that he would be the one to represent Lagos State.
He, however, said he would be pushing for the Presidency to be zoned to the South.
George, who is a former military administrator of the old Ondo State, said the PDP’s constitution clearly stated that the party must zone its presidential ticket, adding that it would be wrong to throw the race open.
The PDP stalwart argued that since the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), a northerner, would be completing his eight-year tenure soon, it would only be right for the PDP to zone its ticket to the South.
He added that the South had qualified aspirants it could put forward.
George stated, “Nobody can be denied the right of contesting. That is clear. But it is also in the PDP’s constitution that the party must pronounce the zone that should produce its President. We cannot keep quiet about this. It should come to the South.
“Buhari is not from the South and he has served for almost eight years. We cannot pretend as if this does not affect us.”
Meanwhile, a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal; and his Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed, on Sunday met in Bauchi to endorse one northern candidate ahead of the party’s presidential primary in nine weeks’ time.
According to Saraki, they will also be meeting former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar on the matter even though he has already obtained the N40m presidential form and declared his intention to contest.
After the meeting at the Ramat House, Bauchi, which lasted about two and a half hours, the former Senate President briefed journalists on the outcome of the discussions.
He said the three of them that had shown interest in contesting the Presidency in 2023 under the PDP from the North had resolved to pick a consensus aspirant among them.
Saraki added, “We came here and had a meeting for about two hours; all the three of us that have shown interest in leading this country, our concern is for the hardship our people are going through, the high cost of living and also looking ahead towards 2023.
“In doing so, we met and discussed that with 2023 ahead of us and in trying to rescue this country, the unity, stability and growth of the country are more important than individual ambitions. We believe that if the three of us are working together honestly, committed and with a lot of zeal for this country, there will be great hope for this country going forward.
“We appreciate that the three of us have shown aspirations to lead this country and what we have come to realise is that we are all competent and capable of leading this country, but at the end of the day, it is only one person that will lead this country in 2023. We have also resolved that we will work closely together to ensure that we will come out with a consensus candidate among the three of us.”
Saraki said although there were aspirants, who had gone ahead to buy nomination forms as part of the process, “but what we have done today supersedes that.”
Asked if their consensus would include Atiku, Saraki said, “We cannot speak on behalf of anybody who is not here, but we have agreed to go and share our thoughts with our elder brother, the Waziri, to let him know, and I am sure and we are hopeful that when we speak with him and share our thoughts, then we will be able to comment on that area.
“Lastly, there are some of us who have shown interest, which is well known, it so happens that those of us who have shown interest are from the North. If other candidates later join, we are ready to sit down with them, but there is only one aspirant from the South, so there is no concern here.”
Saraki described the All Progressives Congress as a party that had almost collapsed, saying the PDP was the only alternative for the country
“We believe that our role is to make things easier for us to have stability, because if there is stability in the PDP, there will be stability in Nigeria. You’ve all seen that the APC is no longer a party; it is having challenges of administering its party and anybody that cannot administer a party cannot lead the country,” the ex-governor stated.
He said the aspirants had told their supporters not to attack one another as the PDP was one big family.
“I want to thank the two governors for all of us who brought this initiative, because the timing is so good because Nigerians want to see; they keep asking, is the PDP ready? And what we are showing today is that the PDP is ready,” Saraki stated.
He said the PDP already had four aspirants and what the party needed to do was to unite and that process of unity was what they were doing.
The PUNCH reports that others at the meeting were a former deputy governor of Zamfara State, Mahdi Gusau; and a former PDP National Chairman, Kawu Baraje.
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