Crisis looming in PDP over zoning of Abia governorship ticket, says BoT member 

Onyema Ugochukwu, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) board of trustees (BOT), has warned of a potential crisis in the Abia chapter of the party.

Ugochukwu, in a statement he personally signed, said the decision over the zoning of the governorship ticket of the PDP has “severely polarised the party”.

Over the weekend, the PDP in the state zoned the governorship ticket for 2023 to the senatorial districts of Abia central and Abia north.

The BoT member described the rotating formula for the governorship as “strange in relation to the ordinary meaning of the word zoning”.

“In the last few weeks, Abia State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been involved in numerous controversies, all of which are now threatening to throw the party into confusion, and potential disaster,” the statement reads.

“We have had the controversy over the zoning of the governorship ticket of the Party, which has pitted Party members in inter-ethnic vituperations and has severely polarised the Party, with members exchanging brickbats across the widening ethnical fault lines.

“Then the Party Executive has announced a zoning formula, which frankly, seems strange in relation to the ordinary meaning of the word “zoning”. Worse still, this zoning decision was taken without the engagement of the statutory organs of the party, such as the state caucus, making it for all intents and purposes, an imposition.

“In the midst of all this, there are reports that a chairman has been appointed for the PDP State Elders Committee, outside a meeting of that organ of the party, which amounts to a breach of the Party Constitution. And then there are stories, so far unconfirmed, that a Governorship candidate has been anointed for the Party.

“From all these, it is clear that our party is heading towards an avoidable crisis. Thank God we are not there yet. But we need to take urgent action to return the party to its normal democratic ways.

“I am therefore calling on the state chairman, Rt. Hon Dr. Asiforo Okere, to take urgent action to call the party back from the brink, by summoning as soon as possible, a meeting of the Abia state PDP caucus to discuss these aberrations.”

Ugochukwu also asked members of the party in the state to “calm down and not exacerbate matters with inflammatory comments”, adding that the problems will be resolved.