IN case they are denied the governorship slot in 2015 on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the people of southern part of Kaduna State, under the aegis of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) on Sunday, threatened to move to the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC).

National Chairman of the SOKAPU, Dr. Ephraim Goje who spoke with journalists at the end of a two-day workshop on peace and reconciliation organised by the union in Kaduna, insisted that it was the turn of the southern Kaduna people to govern the state come 2015, saying that anything short of that would not be acceptable to the people of the geographical area.

Goje also explained that patronage from the ruling PDP would determine whether or not to vote for the party, come 2015.

According to him, “there is possibility of southern Kaduna people moving to APC if the ruling PDP denies us opportunity of governance in 2015, we can’t rule out this possibility. As I said, the body language will determine, the way the PDP treats our people and our aspiration will determine our direction.”

The SOKAPU chairman argued that the formation of the APC was a good omen for the nation’s democracy, while pointing out that “If we feel shortchanged by any arrangement that will deprive us the opportunity to go into Government House by 2015, we have two alternatives, the people will decide the direction, either to remain or to seek for the aspiration under a different platform.”

Goje, who also reacted to the endorsement of the state governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero by the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), for the 2015 governorship race in the state, said any political arrangement that would deny the southern Kaduna people from becoming the governor in 2015, will force them (southern Kaduna) to seek another platform to realise their dreams.

Chairmen of the 23 local councils in the state had gathered at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Kaduna on Friday to endorse the governor who had barely spent a year in office after the death of state governor, Patrick Yakowa in a helicopter crash in Bayelsa State on December 15, 2012.

ALGON’s Chairman, Mr. Danjuma Akuso at that press conference said his colleagues had resolved to stop at “nothing” to bring back Governor Yero as the governor of the state come 2015.

However, SOKAPU chairman dismissed the statement, saying since the PDP has been in power, the people of the area had tasted power for just two years, while also noting that for the sake of equity and fairness, the people of the area (southern Kaduna) should be allowed to govern the state, come 2015.

He said the local council chairmen, particularly those from the southern part of the state who endorsed the governor for 2015 were on their own, just as he said, “they are not speaking for the people.”

According to him, the 2015 governorship race was open to anybody and not only to the governor. The SOKAPU leader added: “The local government chairmen are politicians. If they spoke on 2015 election, they spoke politics. The position of southern Kaduna people essentially may not be the position of local council chairmen who are politicians. They have spoken as politicians; we are representatives of a community cultural association.

“As I have always said, between now and the end of the year or early next year the event will determine the direction and position of SOKAPU as far as 2015 is concerned. I have said it before that 2015 is open to anybody, not only Governor Muhtar Ramalan Yero. He is a sitting governor, but does not foreclose that any other person cannot contest that office.”

Goje argued: “Late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa stayed in the office for two and half years, and as I have been saying, democracy will be 16 years in Kaduna State by 2015, and out of this period, Southern Kaduna people have only enjoyed two years, that was the brief period Yakowa was in office as the governor.

“So we are saying that our interest by 2015 we want power in southern Kaduna, we want power shift to southern Kaduna. And we are standing on this.”

source : guardian nigeria

yes o. power must change hands in 2015.