PDP: No Official Request from South-east for 2023 Presidential Ticket

*Main opposition party broke, says APC

Chuks Okocha and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustee (BoT), Senator Walid Jubrin, yesterday said there was no official request from the PDP in the South-east region for the presidential ticket of the party.

Though he said the zoning of offices within the party is a procedural issue, he stated that “if the South-east caucus of the PDP asked that the presidential ticket be zoned to it, I don’t see anyone or opposing it or denying the zone such request.”

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has expressed shock that the PDP can no longer pay entitlements of its national secretariat staff as at when due, despite billions of naira generated from the sales of nomination forms during the 2019 general election and the recent Edo and Ondo States governorship elections.

The chairman of the PDP BoT told THISDAY that apart from the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting slated for next Thursday, the national caucus and the BoT meetings will take place on Wednesday.

Speaking further on the scramble for the presidential ticket of the party, he said: “Our preoccupation with the PDP now is to ensure the unity of the party because if there is no unity within the party, nobody will talk of the presidential ticket. There must be unity first. You don’t count the chicken before the eggs are hatched. Unity of the PDP is the main thing now.”

However, Jibrin said the party would not pretend not to be unaware of the agitation of the party in the Southeast that the presidential ticket be zoned to it in 2023.

According to him, “What we have heard is merely side talks. There is no official request from the South-east zone that the office of the presidential candidate should come from the zone. What we are reading is just newspaper report.

“If they ask, who will deny them the request? I envy them. The South-east has remained a strong ally of the PDP right from inception. But what I’m saying now is that it is too immature to ask for it now. This is not the time.”

When reminded that the APC has already promised the Southeast geopolitical zone the presidential ticket of the party, he quickly chipped in: “What will the APC not promise to any one or zone? The question is which of the APC’s promises has been kept? This is the question the zone should worry itself about.

“Any promise from the APC should be seen as a Greek gift because they are never realistic.

“I’m just back from Anambra State where I witnessed the inauguration of the chairman of the PDP in the state. The crowd was huge. If we play our game properly, I can tell you that the next governorship election in the state would be won by the PDP. What is happening now is that we have stayed in opposition enough and this is the time for the PDP to go back to the Government House in Awka.”