PDP zones 2019 presidential ticket to North, Vows Not To Repeat Old Mistakes

 

The Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Uche Secondus, on Wednesday in Abuja said the party has zoned its presidential ticket for the 2019 general elections to the North.

The party also said it would not repeat the “mistakes” it made in 2015. 

Secondus said the decision was part of the recommendations of the committee, chaired by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu.

He described the report as a turning point in the fortune of the party, saying the PDP is well organised and ready to play the role of vibrant opposition.

The party chairman said the report of the committee would be presented before other organs of the party for adoption and ratification.

Ekweremadu had, while presenting the report, stressed the need for the party to strictly adhere to the zoning principle at the local, state and national levels.

He said, “Since the last president of PDP extraction came from the southern part of Nigeria, it is recommended that PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election should come from the northern part of the country.

“This is in accordance with popular views expressed in the submissions to the committee. This will also assuage ill feelings in the north over any perceived breach of the party’s zoning principle.

The committee also recommended that the title of “party leader” be discarded forthwith at all levels, as it has no basis in the constitution of the PDP, adding that this would go a long way to strengthen the structure of the party at all levels.

Similarly, the committee also recommended that the party do away with the use of delegates for picking its candidates for elections, saying the process had been grossly compromised and abused.

Instead, it recommended the adoption of direct primaries as means of electing candidates for elections at all levels. This, according to the report, was a practical way of returning the party to the people.