The South-West leaders of the People’s Democratic Party held a meeting in Ibadan on Thursday where they pleaded with the National Caretaker Committee and national leaders of the party to respect the agreement reached at Port Harcourt on May 21, 2016, where the chairmanship of the party was zoned to the geopolitical zone.
A communiqué read at the end of the meeting by the chairman of the party in the zone, Eddy Olafeso, said that the zone had never held the position and that respect of the agreement would help to reposition the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The leaders said that the party would only be fair to the zone if it ceded its chairmanship position to the area.
Among those who were present at the meeting were Olabode George, Iyiola Omisore, Seyi Makinde, Taoheed Adedoja, Ademola Adeleke, Femi Babalola, Sarafadeen Alli, Tunde Akogun, Yemi Farounbi, and Mulikat Adeola.
The communiqué partly reads,
“Noting that since the inception of the PDP in 1998, it is only the South-West out of the six geopolitical zones that has not held the position of the national chairman despite the historic contributions of the zone to the development of the party.
“Recalling that at the May 21, 2016 national convention of the party held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in which the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee was set up and established, the national chairmanship position was conceded to the South-West consequent upon the speech of Dr. Peter Odili, the former governor of Rivers State.
“The position of the national chairman of the party in the South-West would boost efforts at membership drive of the party and party support base. The South-West has consistently demonstrated capacity for swing votes historically from 1999 till date in all general elections.”
