Take PDP to Court over Zoning, Group Tells Obi, Wike, Emmanuel, Others

The Southern and Middle Belt Alliance (SaMBA), and the Peter Obi Support Network (POSN) have asked the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential aspirants from Southern Nigeria to take the party to court for dumping the zoning arrangements as entrenched in its constitution.

Spokespersons for the two groups, Messrs Rwang Pam Jnr (SaMBA) and Sani Saeed Altukry (POSN), stated this in a statement jointly signed by them in Abuja yesterday.

Some of the PDP aspirants from the South are, Governors

Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), and former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, among others.

The groups said, “We hereby call on all southern presidential aspirants to unite and take the party to court on this matter failing which members of SaMBA and POSN that are members of the PDP will assume the responsibility and sue the party RYHU WKLV ÁDJUDQW YLRODWLRQ RI LWV own laws.”

The two national grassroots organisations warned the leadership of the PDP that they were “on the path to perdition over their refusal to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the southern region of the country.”

The joint SaMBA and POSN statement was issued after the PDP National Executive Committee aligned itself with the recommendation of the PDP National Zoning Committee that the Presidential election should be left open.

The groups stated that the PDP violated its constitution by failing to zone its presidential ticket, even as the groups threatened court action against the party for violating its own constitution on zoning.

The groups added that the decision of PDP’s NEC not to enforce its own laws and zone the ticket to the South has “clearly shown that PDP has no regards for the peoples of the southern region – particularly the Southeast and South-south - despite their loyalty to the party since 1999.”

Part of the statement read, “The decision of the National Executive Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday to abandon zoning and throw the presidential ticket open, is not only disheartening to the party faithfuls in the southern region, but also self-destructive to the party being in clear violation of the party’s constitution.