2023 PDP Zoning: I Was Misquoted, says Orthom

By Uche Mbah

Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Zoning committee, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, has denied saying that the PDP has thrown open the Presidency to all contenders, thereby jettisoning zoning.

A 37-member Committee, chaired by Ortom, sat and deliberated for four hours yesterday on the thorny issue of zoning.

Zoning was adopted for the party by the so “Asaba Declaration”, but, Ortom, after the meeting said he has forwarded the proposal to the appropriate quarters.

But information filtered in from the yet to-be-made public zoning position, indicating that the Presidency was thrown open due to the “exigencies of time”. Other positions will flow from the Presidential nomination.

With this, candidates from the North, notably Atiku Abubakar, Bala Mohammed, Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki heaved sighs of relief being that the party has been under pressure to zone the Presidency to the South, particularly South east.

Ortom, spoke Wednesday through a statement signed by Nathaniel Ikyur, his Chief Press Secretary.

In the statement, Ortom claims he was misquoted.

“I want to clear the insinuation that the zoning committee has thrown open the presidential ticket. I did inform the media yesterday (Tuesday, April 5, 2022) that the committee has adopted a unanimous position to be presented to the national executive committee (NEC) of the party. Where did I say that the committee has thrown open the presidential ticket?”, the statement said.