Disagreement Over Zoning Of Presidential Ticket Forces PDP To Postpone NEC Meeting

Failure to arrest contending issues and rein in disagreement over the zoning of presidential ticket has forced the Peoples Democratic Party to postpone its National Executive Committee meeting.

The meeting was scheduled for 2pm at the National Secretariat of the party on Tuesday but was shifted to Wednesday after the National caucus of the party failed to agree on key issues especially on the zoning of the presidential ticket.

The caucus meeting took place at the Akwa Ibom Governors Lodge in Asokoro, on Monday night and continued today.

All expectation that the meeting will hold was dashed when the spokesman of the party, Mr Debo Ologunagba, told waiting journalists that the NEC meeting alongside other ones had been shifted for a day.

Ologunagba said, “After effective discussions, we have adjourned the meeting to Wednesday for the continuation of all the issues on the agenda,” he said, adding that “On Wednesday at 10 a.m. the caucus meeting will hold, thereafter the BoT meeting and then the NEC meeting.”

The National Chairman of the party, Mr Iyorchia Ayu, further doused the tension when he told waiting journalists that, PDP is on course with the timetable and guidelines for 2023 General Elections as released by INEC.

“We are very much on course and this meeting is for us to look at our own timetable and guidelines.

“We are determined that we will keep strictly to the guideline in spite of the short time that is available to us. We will keep to this time line,” he said.

Ayu further added that the PDP NWC was working with stakeholders to resolve whatever problems within the party.

Addressing crisis in some state chapters of the party, he said “On the crisis in other state chapters, we are to conduct congresses in state chapters that we did not have congresses before.

“Whatever problem that may have arising from those congresses, we are addressing them and we hope that by the time we resolve everything, the party will be stronger than ever before,” he said.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Mr Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, appealed to leaders and members of the party to bury their differences and work together, saying, “We must give the right signal to Nigerians, that we are united and ready to rescue this country.”

Speaking also, the Chairman, PDP Board of Trustees, Mr Walid Jibrin, who described the meeting as very critical as the party was expected to arrive at critical and important decisions, appealed to party leaders not to abandon the old party members, while welcoming those retuning after defecting to other political parties.