The leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George has said that the party shunned zoning for its presidency ticket to maintain unity and peace amongst party members.
Mr George, who is also a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, made this revelation on Saturday at the venue of the PDP special national convention.
He said that the party never removed the rotation and zoning principle from its constitution.
“I want to state that the party has never been in this situation and that is why I said it is an experimentation and there was a caveat because everybody thought that the zoning and rotation principle has been removed from the constitution, no,” Mr George said.
Mr George continued: “…we said for the unity and peace of the party let everybody go and try their luck. That’s why we are in this situation. I don’t pray that it will be a matter of north and south because that will be divisive.”
PDP on Saturday began its convention to select its presidential candidate for the 2023 race.
Recall that Mr George, in April, warned that the party would be defeated in the 2023 presidential election if its zoning arrangement was not respected.
Also in April, Southern PDP governors insisted on zoning the party’s presidential ticket to the South, adding that the decision must be taken for the sake of equity and fairness.
However, in the build-up to the primary election, the PDP shunned the warning and clamour for zoning its ticket, leaving it open to aspirants from all the six geo-political zones with northern candidates summing up the majority of aspirants.
