The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, told the party’s chairmanship contenders to forget micro zoning of the coveted office to a particular geo-political zone in the South.
This means aspirants from the South West, South South and South East will slug it at the party’s elective convention scheduled to hold in December.
The committee also said the presidential ticket of the PDP, which had been zoned to the North, would be open for contenders from the three geo-political zones in the region: North West, North East and North Central.
The caretaker committee said it would not micro zone the elective office except approved by the National Executive Committee (NEC), the second highest decision-making body of the party.
Makarfi, who met with all the contestants for the PDP national chairmanship at the Wadata Plaza, the party’s national secretariat, in Abuja, stated this during a meeting held behind closed doors.
He reportedly said that the caretaker committee lacked the authority and legal grounds to do micro zoning except if the three zones in the South met and submitted their resolution to the NEC for approval.
One of the aspirants from the South West, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, who was part of the meeting, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that Makarfi also advised the aspirants to play by the rules of the game and avoid acrimony.
“The meeting was satisfactory; the essence of the meeting was to confirm that the caretaker committee will give us a level playing field. But Makarfi also advised that there shouldn’t be acrimony among the aspirants.
“He also said that the zoning of the presidential ticket to the North and the chairmanship to the South remained the same unless the NEC decided on micro zoning,” he said.
Speaking with newsmen after the meeting, one of the aspirants, Chief Bode George, said, “The meeting was very successful, it is a family contest; it’s not a matter of life and death. Let the best person win and we would support the person,” he said.
A credible source at the meeting who craved anonymity, told Daily Trust that the issue of consensus was not discussed at the meeting.
Other contestants at the meeting were former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel; former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran; former Governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja; former Acting PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, former governorship candidate of the party in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje, and Broadcast Mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi.
DT
