20th October, 2020
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi chapter, has towed the state House of Assembly’s line of asking the party’s national leadership to zone the 2023 presidency to the South East.
The State legislature on Oct 19, called on the PDP’s national leadership to zone the presidency to the South-East zone within seven days or face dire consequences.
The PDP Ebonyi chapter on its own also gave the party’s national leadership seven days to make the declaration but unlike the House of Assembly, it did not issue threats in case the demand was not met.
Chief Onyekachi Nwebonyi, state PDP Chairman, told newsmen at the party’s secretariat in Abakaliki that there might be apathy among party members in the state if the demand was not met.
“Since the inception of the present democratic dispensation, PDP has never thrown its presidential ticket open to all zones as it has always been rotated between the South and the North.
“In that arrangement, the South-East zone has always delivered every presidential candidate of the party at the polls with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo winning in the zone in 1999 and 2003.
“The late Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua won in the zone in 2011; Dr Goodluck Jonathan won in 2015; while Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won the presidential election in the South-East zone in 2019 with a wide margin.
“It is, therefore, a ‘crass show of hypocrisy if the PDP denies the South East that chance and, to that effect, we do vehemently demand the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party to meet on the matter.
“The meeting should be convened within one week to ratify the issue and zone the presidential ticket to the South East,” he said.
Nwebonyi said the PDP in Ebonyi would insist that the party’s tradition be maintained as it would not allow the legitimate yearnings of the South East people be “swept under the carpet”.
“This is going by the recent pronouncement of the PDP national leadership which suggests that the South East will not enjoy the benefits of zoning which other zones have enjoyed.
“The South East has notable personalities who have performed exceedingly well in public service and others fields and can be the country’s president,” he said.
He said that the party in Ebonyi is intact, formidable and stands for equity and fairness.
“We will work for the party’s progress and for it to regain power at the centre if power brokers in its fold will allow justice, equity and fairness to take precedence.
“We are also in support of Chief Uche Secondus for a second term as the party’s national chairman and urge the party not to tamper with the seat,” he said.