Intrigues over zoning of political offices by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have continued with powerful forces pushing fervently for the presidential ticket to be thrown open, it was learnt.
Both the Southern and Northern governors are agitating for presidency to be zoned to their respective regions.
Already, the party’s zoning committee headed by the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has zoned the chairmanship to the North.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) is expected to meet on the vexed issue and also ratify the report of the Ugwuanyi led committee as well as other matters on Thursday preparatory to the convention.
However, despite the decision of the Governor Ugwanyi committee to zone the position of the national chairman to the North, there is ongoing move by “powerful forces” within the party to influence the NEC to throw the contest for presidential ticket open to all qualified members, it was gathered.
The Ugwanyi-led committee, it was learnt, jettisoned the popular demand by party members to maintain the status quo “to douse tension” within the party.
Already, the committee’s decision is attracting protests from some key party stalwarts and states, calling on party leadership to reject the report.
A group, the PDP National Leaders Forum, in a statement by its convener and a chieftain of the party from Ogun state, Reverend Olusola Salau, on Tuesday, called on the NEC to jettison what it described as the “self-serving proposal” and maintain the status quo.
They noted that the constitution of the zoning committee was faulty for the reason that it was lopsided and deliberately skewed to satisfy the interest of a section of the party.
“For instance, Benue State has five representatives while Osun has no single representative. Even when that observation was raised at the meeting, a certain Governor from the South-South bullied everybody to ignore something as fundamental as that,” Salau said.
He therefore called on the NEC to do needful by throwing the report of the Ugwuanyi -led committee in its entirety as it did not represent the position of all zones.
Our correspondent learnt that bigwigs such as Sule Lamido, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Bukola Saraki are pushing for an open ticket to keep them in the race for the presidency.
Sources said some NEC members even from the South, are sighted at the premises of some of the bigwigs as the intrigues heightened ahead of the NEC meeting.
“The ultimate decision over the matter lies with the NEC and I can tell you that going by what has happened so far under the cloak of darkness, NEC may thrown the contest for presidency open or maintain the status quo all together,” a source said.
The source said some of the Southern governors have visited former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and former Senate president, Saraki at their Abuja residences separately at night shortly after the zoning committee report was made public.
“They have been sneaking in and out and I can tell you that some of them(southern governors) are not happy with what happened but their hands are tied,” he explained.
