Huge confusion as Southern PDP kicks Dokpesi, others out of national chairmanship race

– Southern PDP says it has re-zoned the national chairmanship position to the southwest region

– Other candidates may now be disqualified from running for the chairmanship position

– Raymond Dokpesi says he will not stop campaigning because the re-zoning is not tenable

There is presently a state of confusion over where the next national chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) will come from.

More uncertainties arose on Tuesday, August 4 after stakeholders at a meeting of the Southern zone of the opposition party zoned the national chairmanship position to the South-West.

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This is despite the fact that many candidates from other parts of the Southern region have expressed interest in the position and have already kicked off their respective campaigns.

Those who have expressed in the top job are outgoing national vice chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus (South-east); national vice chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh (South-south); former deputy national vice chairman, Chief Bode George (South-west); Chief Raymond Dokpesi (south-south) and Senator Bode Olajumoke (South-west).

However, with the new directive, only the duo of George and Olajumoke are qualified to run for the position. This is contrary to earlier directive from the national caretaker committee led by Ahmed Markafi which zoned the national chairmanship position to the entire Southern region.

Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu added more uncertainty to the developments at the meeting by telling journalists afterwards that despite the re-zoning of positions on Thursday, any party member who was willing to contest any position is free to do so but advised party members from the Southern Nigeria to respect the re-zoning.

Meanwhile, other candidates who have now been ruled out of the national chairmanship race are not taking the new development lightly and they have refused to step down.

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One of such is Dokpesi, whose campaign head, Shehu Gaban said on Friday that the decision reached at the party means nothing to them and that their campaign would continue.

“The (major) decision has already been taken (at the national level), that was why we embarked on campaign and we are still on campaign. There was a meeting of the large caucus of the PDP, in which I was a member and I attended. There, two positions were clearly spelt out and they should not be tampered with.

“One, the president has been zoned to the north and nobody is authorised to re-zone it to any particular zone in the whole northern region. Anybody from north is free to contest the position of the president. Two, the national chairman of the PDP has been zoned to the entire south and no group or anybody has been permitted to micro-zone to any particular zone in the whole of the south.

“So any individual, any PDP member who wants vie for the office of the chairman from the south is entitled to it. Other positions were allowed to be zoned within the zone where it was located.

“Absolutely, we are going to purchase our form likely today to run for the chairmanship and we are going ahead to complete other things that are outstanding like the campaign that we will complete in two days. There is absolutely nothing that has happened to our campaign,” Gaban told a live radio show which was monitored by NAIJ.com on Friday.

NAIJ.com recalls that just in July, the PDP national caretaker committee zoned all the positions of the party to the six different geopolitical zones of the country ahead of the national convention scheduled for August 17.

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