Former Senate President, Adolphus Wabara has faulted the zoning of 2023 the Abia Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governorship ticket to two different senatorial districts of the state at the same time.
PDP had Saturday in a statement by the state chairman of the party, Asiforo Okere, said it zoned the party’s governorship ticket to Abia Central and Abia North Districts.
Wabara said it was “absolutely unconstitutional for the party to make a zoning that is confusing and not clear-cut”.
Senator Wabara, secretary, Board of Trustees (BoT) of PDP, expressed surprise that the party could take such a far-reaching decision without first convening a meeting of the State caucus and party elders.
He said: “The governor and the party chairman cannot stay in the comfort of their offices and zone the position without due consultations.
“PDP is a party that has constitution. So, I don’t know where they got the whole idea from. As far as I’m, and many other leaders of this party are concerned, they did not summon a meeting of the caucus.
“I’m not sure other leaders attended any caucus meeting not to talk of attending any Elders Council meeting where such decisions were reached.
“I may not be a founding father of PDP but I am a founding member of the party. In 1998 when we funded this party, I did not see the likes of Okezie and Asiforo there.”
The former Senate President dismissed the zoning as “unilateral, childish and laughable.”
Senator Wabara asked Governro Okezie Ikpeazu to copy the openness of his predecessors who left no one in doubt of where their preferred successor would come from.
“He cannot read our constitution upside down and use excessive force because he is the governor. No, that won’t work!
“I still stand by what I said before: If things are not done the right way, PDP will lose Abia State. So, we should try to do the right thing.
“The Governor said that very soon he will show the way. By the time he shows us the way, he will now realize the full error in zoning governorship position to two senatorial districts with the flimsy and illiterate excuse that there are so many aspirants from both zones.”
Also, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, rejected the purported zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Abia State.
Abaribe, who represents Abia South was reacting to a statement credited to the Abia State chairman of the PDP, Dr. Alwell Asiforo, that the ticket had been zoned to Abia North and Central zones.
In a statement, he urged “all Abians who are desirous of an end to imposition in Abia State to disregard the purported zoning.”
He said while any member of PDP has the right to support anybody for any elective position, it cannot be to the exclusion of other members.
“It is obvious that the statement was merely formulated to exclude me from the contest. By virtue of section 42(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, no person or body can exclude me (Nma Agha Ndigbo) from contesting and winning the 2023 elections in Abia State. All PDP members and Abia citizens are therefore urged to remain calm and participate in the forthcoming congresses and primaries where your voice will be heard as we dismantle the cabal that want to keep Abians subjected to further years of imposition. It is only Abians that will decide who will be their Governor in 2023,”
