S’ East, North move against S’West over PDP chairmanship
By Akinwumi Rotimi, Abuja, Onoja Audu, Jos, Patience Ogbodo, Bauchi, Ben Duru, Umuhahia, and Baba Negedu, Kaduna

The move by leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South West to ensure that the zone gets the seat of the National Chairman of the party is being opposed by their contemporaries in the South East and Northern part of the country.

After the South West lost the seat of the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives to the North West, chieftains of the PDP in the region have been frantic in their effort to convince the party to compensate the zone with the chairmanship of the party which the South East and North East members of the party were lobbying for before the election of the principal officers of National Assembly.

Speaking in Abuja, National Vice Chairman, North East of the PDP, Paul Wampana, declared that the post won’t go to the South West zone no matter what.

He said that the zone should stop agitating for the slot.

According to him, the South West only voted for the PDP presidential candidate, Goodluck Jonathan and should look up to him, not the party for compensation.

“Everybody knows in this country that the South West didn’t vote PDP, but for the President. Please, they must be given the credit for voting for the President”.

Meanwhile, former special adviser to Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda on political affairs, Hon Abdumumuni Kundak, has declared that any attempt to deny the North East region the office will compromise the zoning arrangement of the party.

Kundak who stated this in an exclusive interview with Saturday Independent in Bauchi frowned at any attempt to zone the national chairman of PDP to another zone be it South West or any other region saying “if such happened that means that we are not being treated well because the office is supposed to come to the North East.

“I want to call on the leadership of PDP to follow the zoning system strictly and treat us with fairness and honesty by zoning the office to North East because we are due for it,” he stated.

In the same manner, a chieftain of PDP in Abia State, Chukwu Nwachukwu, described attempts to hand over the leadership of the party to the South West as akin to rewarding failure and lack of productivity.

Nwachukwu, a governorship aspirant in 2007 insisted that since the North West has taken the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives; it was only natural that the national chairman position be zoned to the South East.

He said that the South West zone has nothing to show for their stewardship in the last April general elections, noting that the PDP lost all the position. The PDP chief insisted that the South East performed excellently during the 2011 general elections to the extent that the presidential election recorded not less than 98 percent and majority of the National and State Assembly seats and the governorship were retained by the party.

Kaduna State PDP said it will not just fold its hand and allow the South West to grab the position of the national chairman as the zone is also happy to keep the post.

The state’s Public Relation Officer, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu Wusono, said it is a position the North will like to retain since the zone is already there through the acting capacity of the Bello Haliru Mohammed.

“But as loyal party people, we are ready to abide by whatever the national level decide, if the party decides to zone the position to the South West we will accept it. But one thing I can say is that the party will not stop anyone from contesting any position,” he said.

haka_nai:

I think the way we voted should , by now, make it clear that all these positions don't concern the people of the SW . "It is the affair of the PDP" and majority of SW folks could not care less what the PDP do with their positions. Afterall , wetin concern me with who becomes the head of an armed robbery group when I am not an armed robber ? Anybody, for their own feelings of vengeance and revenge, who thinks the SW is somehow being punished because some positions are not coming to the region is deluded.It is the PDP in the SW that is being "punished" not Yoruba people as some folks are so eager to believe and write. How have we lost out when it is the SW people themselves who deliberately rejected the PDP , and thus their positions, by aligning with ACN?