Why South-West PDP may break away after May 21

Key members of the South-west geopolitical zone of the Peoples Democratic Party have vowed to exit the party if the zone is denied the opportunity to produce the next national chairman of the party.

One of the members, Doyin Okupe, who is a former presidential aide told Premium Times on Monday, April 25 that leaders of the party in the zone are already in working on the next course of action if the zone is “robbed” of the position of national chairman at the party’s national convention scheduled to hold on May 21.

Some of the leaders in on the plan are former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Olabode George; the governorship candidate of the party in Lagos in the 2015 election, Jimi Agbaje and Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State.

Others are former Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide; a former Minister of Works, Adeseye Ogunlewe and party chieftain, Bode Olajumoke.

He said: “We took a firm position which was that we will dump the party en masse if we get robbed again at this year’s convention.”

In light of the plan, Okupe therefore advised Governor Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom State to do the right thing by zoning the chairmanship of the party to the southwest geopolitical zone.

The PDP zoning committee is expected to convene on Tuesday, April 26 in Uyo, where the party’s zoning formula would be determined.

Okupe stated that Udom’s decision when the committee convenes would show if he would be judged as a villain or hero.

He also revealed that the Yoruba people have been relegated by the party for too long and that the only way the party could remedy the injustice is to allow the South-West nominate the next chairman.

“Governor Udom is a young gentleman whom I believe still has a long future in Nigerian politics ahead of him,” Mr. Okupe said. “It will be unfortunate if he allowed himself to be used to relegate Yoruba people within the affairs of the party once again. The PDP has done a lot of wrongs to the Yoruba people and our position now is that they should start making amends by allowing us to present the next chairman.”

The former presidential aide further declared that zoning the prized position to the north is tantamount to “robbery and betrayal” of the South-West seeing that the presidential ticket for 2019 had already been zoned to the north.

Buttressing his point, Okupe also said that according to Nigerian history, the Yoruba people are known to be the freedom fighters of the minority.

“As you can see from the rally that was held by PDP yesterday in Jigawa State, it’s very clear that the presidential slot is going to the north, so I don’t think the chairmanship should go back to the same north unless they’re determined to carry out another robbery and betrayal against the southwest.”

“Nigerian history is replete with several instances in which the Yoruba people led the struggle for the actualisation of the minority agenda in the country, we fought for the people of south-south and the minorities in the north to have a say about the process of governance in this country, so it will be an utmost betrayal if Udom failed to let the chairmanship position come to the south-west as should be.”

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