By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—NATIONAL Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo said, yesterday, that the issue of zoning in the party died since 1999, just as he added that it had been jettisoned.

Nwodo who was fielding questions from newsmen noted that zoning in the ruling party especially as it related to producing its presidential candidate was no longer on ground, adding that even in 2003, some aspirants struggled for the party’s ticket with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and that no one returned their money to them even when they paid to collect the nomination forms.

The PDP National Chairman’s position came on the heels of agitations from across the country that President Goodluck Jonathan should contest for the 2011 Presidential elections, just as different groups have emerged rooting for him to make himself available and even against the position of the North that zoning in PDP be respected.

Nwodo said the issue of zoning could be revisited, even as he stressed that he was not afraid to revisit it. He said it would involve a process, adding: “Yes I said to BBC and I repeat to you that zoning in PDP has been jettisoned. There is no zoning on ground right now.

“Absolutely there is no zoning. In 1999, there was zoning and only one Northerner insisted on his inalienable right to the Nigerian Constitution to contest the zoning arrangement of the PDP. The PDP put its foot down and I wrote a letter to him and returned his cheque.

That is the late Abubakar Rimi of blessed memory. In 2003 after four years of Obasanjo, candidates sprang up from across the country. They paid, they canvassed. Nobody returned their money.

“Nobody wrote them that there was a zoning. In 2007, there were more candidates from Southern Nigeria than Northern Nigeria and I think if that election was allowed to hold without interference, may be anybody among Peter Odili, Donald Duke or Sam Egwu would have won. They all paid. Nobody returned their money. Nobody stopped them. Nobody talked about zoning.

They all contested. Why zoning now? Why? We have jettisoned it but we can revisit it. I’m not afraid about revisiting it. If we think that we need to revisit zoning today, let us revisit zoning. But the one we did in 1999, no, no, no, no, it has been jettisoned by PDP itself. So those who are talking about that agreement are not following the history of the party.

“The party has never stopped anybody after 1999 on the altar of zoning. But if they want us to zone now, we will go through the process. We will start from the Working Committee; we will prepare a memo on the advantages and disadvantages of zoning. We will take the memo to the caucus.

The parliament and the government will make their inputs on which way to go. We will take it to the BoT, the conscience of the party and draw from their wealth of experience.

Then we will modify the scale with their inputs. And then we have the final debate at NEC which takes final decision for PDP. Right now, nobody can get up and tell me there was zoning or there is no zoning. If we want to zone, we have to go through this process because the earlier arrangement on zoning is not working any more.”

Apologise to Bankole, Nigerians, Nwodo tells Melaye, others

Meantime, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo and other members of the National Working Committee, NWC of the party drilled the suspended members of the House of Representatives.

Vanguard gathered that at the end of the meeting which had all the “Progressives” in attendance, the leadership of the Party ordered them to apologize to Speaker Dimeji Bankole, members of the House of Representatives and the entire country over what it described as their unruly behavior where they allowed personal interest to override national one.

The 11 members of the Progressives who were mainly PDP members were led by Dino Melaye to the Wadata Plaza, National Secretariat of the Party yesterday to explain their roles in the House. Others were Independence Ogunewe, West Idahosa, Doris Uboh, among others. The meeting lasted for over three hours.

According to her, as a member of the House, she was speaking on the matter against the backdrop that members of her constituency were worried over the allegation that she was responsible for the ugly situation in the House saying “I didn’t slap anybody. The tape of the incident of day is everywhere. All the media houses have it.”

“I am sure when you look at it in any media house of your choice, you will not see me slapping any one and the member that was allegedly slapped by me has not come out to say I slapped him. I was not even talking to him. I was talking to another person when the member in question slapped me on my neck instead. I didn’t slap anyone.”

Reacting to the position of the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Eseme Eyiboh who said that she started the uproar, however urged him to provide evidence, adding “Let him show the Nigerian public where I slapped anybody.

“The whole thing happened in the presence of the leadership. They were there and could have put a stop to it. From what you saw, the Speaker was just sitting. Nobody prevented it. When I was being dragged on the floor they were all looking at me.”