South-West Not Sidelined, PDP Tells APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed insinuations that the South West region was sidelined in the last National Convention of the party, accusing the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) of orchestrating the rumours.

The PDP, in a statement signed by the National Deputy Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Diran Odeyemi, declared that it is a national party with representatives from all regions in the National Working Committee with equal rights and privileges.

The statement said the party, being a truly national party, holds in high esteem the South West region and recognises its contributions in keeping alive its ideals.

It however blamed activities of some aspirants from the south-west zone for its inability to clinch the position of national chairman of the party, stressing that it will be a political lesson in the future for politicians from the region.

According to the statement, the South West is not only fully recognised in the party but will also play a critical role in returning the party to power in 2019.

“PDP is the only National Party which spread across all geopolitical zones of the country, we hold in high esteem the contributions of South West to our party”

“We advise politicians from the region to learn from what happened in the last convention and allow peace within their fold. We also urge them to do more in empowering youths from the region to enable them play more prominent role as the nation prepares for the critical election in 2019,” the statement read.

Meanwhile the Party also defended the distribution of lists that took place during the party’s national convention on Saturday, December 9.

Addressing the controversial issue on Monday, the newly elected Legal adviser of the Party, Mr Agbo Emmanuel, said the situation was a normal phenomenon even globally.

“In any election, there is always a lineup – it is not a Nigerian phenomenon, it is a global thing.

“Whenever you have an electoral college, there is always a line up by the contestants so in the last convention, there were a lot of lists generated by the different blocs that contested that election so, that is not an issue.”