As the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP national convention approaches, South East PDP Lawmakers threatens to quit the party over alleged plot by Governor Makinde to take away the National Woman leader’s position from the South East to the South South.
This is coming on the heels of a recent development that has to do with the issue of woman leader position, which was originally zoned to the Southeast with Imo state favoured candidate and current South East zonal woman leader Mrs Arodiogbu Ifeyinwa billed to clinch it before Gov.Mba of Enugu nominated an Enugu woman who recently followed him to decamp to APC.
Meanwhile, Imo PDP stands a chance to clinch what rightly belong to them but new moves by Gov.Makinde of Oyo state is threatening to throw the PDP into more devastating set back with an unpopular move by the governor to allegedly disgrace Igbos, who are in PDP by unilaterally removing the Woman leader Position zoned to South East and give it away to South South against the agreed zoning formula.
According to the lawmakers, “the current Southeast zonal woman leader Ifeyinwa Arodiogbu was unanimously backed by South East PDP chieftains to clinch the position before Governor Mbah, who is now in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, allegedly influenced the zoning to Enugu and took the woman leader for Enugu after supporting Gov.Makinde to take the National Secretary that belonged to South East and Imo state to South West.
Spokesperson of the congress, Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said that they will issue a disclaimer against the convention in two weeks and will not participate if Imo State and South East is humiliated by those who want to rubbish an entire region, as he warned that there is still time to remedy the situation before Tuesday next week screening, saying that no elected lawmaker from South East will remain in PDP if the impending insult is allowed to happen.
He went on to state that the PDP should not suffer more further setbacks.
“Still, we will stick to our position on the Ibadan convention if, in the next few weeks, the position of National woman leader is not ceded expressly to Imo State and an Imo person allowed to emerge.
“Now that Governor Mbah has left for APC, that earlier arrangement of producing a woman leader is not going to stand because Gov. Mbah’s woman leader nominee is also in APC with him, which brings back a chance for the injustice to be addressed and for Imo State to produce the national woman leader.
However, confirmed information is filtering in that some people, especially Gov.Makinde of Oyo State, are now trying to move that woman leader position out of the Southeast to the South-South because of their disdain and disrespect for PDP members from the South East.
“They want to provoke the entire Southeast and alienate them. Because of that, stakeholders from the Southeast, led by the federal lawmakers, are now threatening to boycott the Ibadan convention if the position of woman leader is not ceded to Imo State and the Southeast is allowed to produce the national woman leader.
“This will compound the ongoing confusion you already have in the PDP. If the remaining stakeholders from the Southeast boycott the Convention, they are going to bring the party into more crisis.
The lawmakers appealed to Governor Makinde, and Governor Adeleke to use their position as the leaders of the PDP in southern Nigeria to ensure that the position is given to the Southeast and Imo State.
“They don’t want to believe the information that Governor Makinde is the one behind the plan to cede the woman leader position to the South-South. It would be very insulting to the Southeast if a position that is theirs is taken away and given to the South-South.”
End.
