By Ayo Kehinde
On Thursday, stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South met in Lagos to deliberate on zoning arrangements ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled for November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The PDP National Working Committee (NWC) last inaugurated a 44-member zoning committee ahead of the elective national convention. The committee is expected to allocate the various NWC positions to the geopolitical zones, which the NEC will review and approve.
Thursday’s meeting was held at the Legend Hotel, Ikeja. Stakeholders at the consultative meeting summoned by the party’s Zoning Committee, chaired by Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, include Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George, and Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, among others
However, some party members loyal to FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, including former Benue governor, Samuel Ortom, boycotted the meeting.
Earlier, some party members loyal to the FCT Minister, in a statement, dismissed the Lagos meeting as “illegal” and “exclusionary.”
The joint statement signed by Austin Nwachukwu, Abraham Amah, Venatius Ikem, Aniekan Akpan, and Aaron Chukwuemeka, who chair the PDP in Imo, Abia, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers states, respectively, vowed to take all necessary steps to resist the outcome of the meeting.
“Decisions reached in secrecy and exclusion cannot and shall not assume the authority of consensus,” the statement read, accusing organisers of sidelining several state chairmen, national officers, and former governors from the South-East and South-South.
