A former Deputy National Chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has insisted that a southern member of the party must replace Iyorchia Ayu as the national chairman of the party before the commencement of the 2023 election campaigns which is scheduled to begin on September 28, 2022.
According to him Ayu, who hails from the northern part of the country, will not be allowed to continue to hold the position since the presidential candidate of the party is from the North.
George, who made this known while speaking at a press conference in Lagos on Thursday, said Ayu’s refusal to fulfil his promise meant that members of the party in the south were of no importance.
He said, ‘Let me reiterate again that the will of the people must be respected and the six top offices in the country must be distributed equitably and fairly because PDP is not a private company. The office of the National Chairman must come to the South before we commence the presidential campaign if victory is to be secured in the next general election.
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‘In May this year, we elected our presidential candidate in the person of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, setting aside the principle of rotation as enshrined in the constitution of our party in the interest of peace and unity of our party. Today, we are in a situation in which our National Chairman is from the same zone as our presidential candidate.
‘Some people are insisting that there is nothing wrong with this present arrangement. Some have argued that this happened during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, where the candidate and the national chairman were from the same zone.’
Meanwhile, the founding Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Olu Falae, and a former Liaison Officer to ex-President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, on Thursday declared that there would be no rigging in the 2023 general elections.
They, therefore, called on politicians to move to the grassroots and campaign.
The elder statesmen stated these at the commissioning of the national secretariat of the SDP in Abuja.
Falae, 84, who spoke after cutting the tape of the new office, said when they decided to revive the SDP some people thought it was going to be impossible but they did it without litigation.