The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is expected to commence the screening of its presidential aspirants on Friday.
The development may have foreclosed the issue of zoning of it’s presidential ticket.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE had reported that 17 aspirants purchased and submitted the expression of interest and nomination forms and are expected to face the David Mark-led screening committee on April 29.
Other members of the screening committee include, former governor of Rivers State, Celestine Omehia; senior lawyer Mike Ahamba; a former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko; Edward Ashiekaa, a legal practitioner and a women advocate, Hilda Makonto, former presidential aide Akilu Indabawa, Esther Uduehi and Hassana Dikko.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Debo Ologunagba, told the PUNCH in an nterview that the National Executive Committee (NEC) is expected to set aside the Samuel Ortom’s report on zoning when it meet next Wednesday.
The spokesman was quoted by the paper as saying that the constitution gave all qualified Nigerians the right to contest and not be discriminated against.
According to him, only the party’s NEC has the final say on the matter.
The party has been in a dilemma over the refusal of the southern and northern elements to agree on zoning.
While party stakeholders in the North wanted the ticket to be thrown up for contest, those from the South insisted that the ticket be zoned to the region.
Northern leaders, who were demanding that the presidential ticket of the party should be thrown open, hoped that a northerner would emerge as the party flag bearer.
They said that the emergence of a northern president on the ticket of the party would balance the power ratio between the North and South.
They argued that by the time the President Muhammadu Buhari concluded his term, the North would have spent 11 years in power if the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s three-year tenure was added.
This, they argued, would be short of a total of 13 years spent by former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
However, the southern leaders insisted that the North had been in power in the country more than the South since independence.
