ZONING: "PDP NCC Has No Power Beyond Decisions of Convention",........Makarfi

Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has made clear, the position of his committee on the issue of zoning of offices in the forthcoming elections into the National Executive Committee of the PDP slated for December, 2017.



According to Senator Makarfi, his committee had no power on micro-zoning of elective positions.

In his words; "as a committee, our powers are limited to the decisions taken at the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt".

"The convention agreed to zone the national chairmanship to the South while its ticket in the 2019 presidential election was zoned to the north. We cannot go beyond that and decide which part of the north or south should produce what", Makarfi stated on Tuesday.

The PDP NCC chairman gave this clarification when the NCC members met with eight national chairmanship aspirants at the party’s National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza in Abuja.

The clarification became very important considering the insinuations going round.

"Some people think that I, as chairman of the caretaker committee, should assume the power that we don’t have", Makarfi stated.

"We have no power beyond the convention and the party’s constitution".

"I want to remind all of us that the only thing our convention did was to zone two positions. The caretaker committee cannot go beyond that".

"To assume that the chairman of the caretaker committee can come and exercise power that he doesn’t have, and start dishing out orders, that will be undemocratic. That will have no basis or foundation in our constitution", Senator Ahmed Makarfi emphasized.

Makarfi urged the aspirants to close ranks and work together so as to avoid mistakes of the past, pointing out that it was only when the party succeeded that every member would smile.

The meeting was aimed at giving every aspirant the opportunity to state his vision and plans for the party if elected its national chairman, he said.

"We decided that we should meet, discuss and hear from you, as we prepare for the convention", the PDP NCC chairman said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee thereafter went into a closed door meeting with the chairman aspirants.

Among aspirants at the meeting were Sen. Rasheed Ladoja, former Oyo Governor; Prof. Tunde Adeniran, former Education Minister; Chief Gbenga Daniel, former Ogun governor, and Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Founder, Daar Communications.

Others were Chief Olabode George, former PDP National Deputy Chairman; Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, former sports and Special Duties Minister, Mr Jimi Agbaje, PDP candidate in the 2015 Lagos governorship race, and Prince Uche Secondus, former PDP Acting National Chairman.

Chief Bode George who spoke on behalf of his colleagues after the meeting, told newsmen that the meeting was “peaceful and useful”.

“All the aspirants agreed to remain civil and to also educate their followers that the election is a family contest and not a matter of life and death.

Additional reports from (NAN)