Southeast PDP Threatens Boycott Of National Convention, Set Conditions

The South-East caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party members in the House of Representatives has threatened to boycott the forthcoming national convention of the party, making serious demands over leadership zoning within the party.

Spokesperson of the group, Ikenga-Imo Ugochinyere, made the position of his colleagues known in a statement in Abuja, demanding that the woman leader must be zoned to the southeast.

The group accused the governor of Enugu state, Peter Mbah, of usurping the position of a Woman Leader, which, according to him, was originally zoned to Imo state, even after defecting to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The lawmakers insist they would leave the PDP should the party not stick to its directive to zone the seat to Imo state.

Spokesperson Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere told the media the group would issue a disclaimer against the Convention within two weeks. He threatened a full boycott if Imo State and the Southeast are humiliated by those seeking to “rubbish the entire region.”

Ugochinyere stressed that the situation must be fixed before the screening exercise next Tuesday, warning that the party would lose all elected lawmakers from the Southeast if the “impending insult” occurs.

His words, “Now that Governor Mbah has left for APC, that earlier arrangement of producing a woman leader is not going to stand because Gov. Mbah’s woman leader nominee is also in APC with him.” Now, this brings back a chance for the injustice to be addressed and for Imo State to produce the national woman leader. However, confirmed information is filtering in that some people, especially Gov.Makinde of Oyo State, are now trying to move that woman leader position out of the Southeast to the South-South because of their disdain and disrespect for PDP members from the South East.”

He added, “They want to provoke the entire Southeast and alienate them. Because of that, stakeholders from the Southeast, led by the federal lawmakers, are now threatening to boycott the Ibadan convention if the position of woman leader is not ceded to Imo State and the Southeast is allowed to produce the national woman leader.

“This will compound the ongoing confusion you already have in the PDP. If the remaining stakeholders from the Southeast boycott the Convention, they are going to bring the party into more crisis. So, the lawmakers are appealing to Governor Makinde, the governor of Oyo State, and Governor Adeleke to use their position as the leaders of the PDP in southern Nigeria to ensure that the position is given to the Southeast and Imo State. They don’t want to believe the information that Governor Makinde is the one behind the plan to cede the woman leader position to the South-South. It would be very insulting to the Southeast if a position that is theirs is taken away and given to the South-South.”