By BOSE ADELAJA

A group of South-East professionals in the diaspora under the aegis of Nwanne Di n’mba has warned that the zone would kick against attempts by the leadership of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to deny her the position of either the Senate president or speaker, House of Representatives in the new National Assembly.

The group, in a statement signed by its president, Dr Chukwuemeka Okoli, noted that, although the association is a non-partisan body, it has been closely monitoring political developments in the country, adding that the time is now ripe for the South-East to be rewarded for its serial sacrifices towards the stabilization of the polity, especially the resounding support given to President Goodluck Jonathan’s election.

According to the group, prior to the elections, the South-East  remained solidly committed to the Jonathan presidency while sacrificing its own potentials to present a candidate to slug it out with Mr President.

“The South-East zone could have joined the fray by presenting a candidate to also vie for the presidency. We have very credible sons and daughters who can conveniently win the presidency for the zone in a free and fair contest, but we chose instead to support the candidature of Jonathan Goodluck and indeed delivered over 97 percent of our votes to him. APGA, a predominantly Ndigbo party, even publicly adopted Jonathan as its presidential candidate in the elections,” the group stated.

“The three governorship seats so far contested in the zone were won by the PDP. Over 85 percent of the National Assembly seats also went to the party. Countless number of state assembly seats equally went to the PDP, just to demonstrate the peoples overwhelming endorsement for the party.

“But in spite of all these, the big question is: what is the PDP leadership doing to reward the support. Is it in the allocation of a second fiddle office to the South East. We state unequivocally that nothing short of the either the office of the Senate president or speaker, House of Representatives would be acceptable to the zone”.