New party emerges as PDP bigwigs insist on North for 2019

PROPONENTS of the much-talked about mega party, Action Democratic Party (ADP), are set to submit registration documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) this week.

The development is coming as chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) kicked against the move by a new group, PDP Southern Consultative Forum, led by former External Affairs Minister, Tom Ikimi, agitating that presidential ticket of the party for 2019 election be zoned to the southern part of the country.

The group met in Abuja last week and set up a committee to ensure that the party’s presidential ticket was retained in the South.

Cracks in the PDP, it will be recalled, created room for members of the erstwhile New PDP to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) en masse, leading to the failure of the PDP at the 2015 general election.

Proponents of the mega party had intended that aggrieved members of the APC would team up with members of the PDP to form a big party that could withstand the APC in the 2019 election.

ADP leaders had also hoped that the crisis rocking the PDP would persist well into 2018, a situation they believed would compel the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP to jettison the Senator Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction and team up with ADP.

The ADP is being midwifed to profit from a mass movement of aggrieved APC members away from the party ahead the 2019 election, but a recent peace move ignited by leaders of the APC had threatened the formation of the new party.

Sources close to the proponents of the mega party told the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja that politicians linked to the party were mobilising to submit the relevant papers at the national headquarters of INEC on Wednesday.

Though the known faces linked to the party at present are believed to be loyalists of a former military leader, it was gathered that many others are lying low for now, ahead the planned mass movement to the new party from other existing parties.

Those behind the ADP, it was gathered, are members of the two leading parties in the country, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and PDP, but who are looking for opportunities to come out and declare for the new party, with their “surrogates” taking charge at present.

“What we have done is to assign those who are less affiliated to the main parties to handle the registration, after which the mass movement would take place at the right time,” a source close to the party said.

It was learnt that a notice of meeting was already being circulated among members directing them to converge on Abuja for the trip to INEC.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that members of the new party should start arriving in Abuja from today, ahead the planned official registration at the INEC headquarters by 11.00 a.m. on Wednesday.

“For now, they are going ahead with the registration of the new party. The party has met all the conditions spelt out by the law, after this, we will know the next step. All I can tell you for now is that we are set to do what we are used to, that is politicking,” a source said.

Kicking against agitation by the Ikimi group in the PDP, chieftains of the party expressed concerns that the position was capable of jeopardising the chances of the party in 2019.

The emerging group in the party had argued that since the inception of democracy in 1999, the North had produced two presidents while the South had equally produced two, while it set up a committee led by former Cross Rivers State governor, Lyel Imoke, to fashion out modalities on how the South would produce president in 2019.

The agitation, it was gathered, negated the recommendation of a committee led by Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, which zoned the 2019 president ticket of the party to the North.

The PDP post-election review committee, led by Ekweremadu, in its report, noted that in accordance with the popular views expressed in the submissions to the committee, the Presidency should be zoned to the North, as it would also assuage any ill-feelings over any perceived breach of the party’s zoning principle.

The committee also recommended that PDP must heal inflicted wounds, while it should also constitute a reconciliatory panel to facilitate the reconciliation of aggrieved members at all levels.

Kicking against the agitation, Ekiti State governor and chairman of  PDP Governors’ Forum, Mr Ayo Fayose, in a telephone interview with the Nigerian Tribune, said he was not aware of any pronouncement  by the Ikimi group on the issue.

He, however, declared that it would be immoral not to concede it to the North. “I don’t have any  information about it, but for me, as Ayo Fayose, I am a supporter of Northern presidency in 2019.  It is morally right for the Presidency to come from the North in 2019.’’

In a similar vein, a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said the national leadership had not rescinded its decision in adopting the Senator Ekweremadu-led committee report on zoning of the party presidential ticket to the North.

“We heard about the meeting held in Chief Ikimi’s house, where they said southern leaders of PDP, spearheaded by Tom Ikimi and Dr Raymond Dokpesi, took that position. The PDP  hasn’t announced a decision to change the zoning of Presidency to the North.

“Secondly, we in South-West believe and we have resolved that the South-West be allowed to provide national chairman for the party. So, until the party announced anything to the contrary, the North has the

presidency and the South-West must produce national chairman,” he said.

Also, former chairman of the defunct Grassroot Democratic Movement (GDM) and PDP chieftain, Gambo Lawan, dismissed the Tom Ikimi group, saying it was working to undermine the PDP.

“They are jokers. I don’t think they have the interest of  PDP and Nigeria at heart because the zoning agreement that was agreed upon must be respect and adhered to.

“So, those agitating that the ticket be retained in the South don’t have the interest of the party and Nigeria at heart,” he said.

National vice-chairman, PDP South-West, Chief Eddy Olafeso, said “I am not aware that PDP had any meeting where any decision was taken to jettison the Senator Ekwremadu-led committee recommendation.

“What I know is that PDP is still clearing all forces against its unity. As soon as that is done, we shall focus our energy on rebuilding the party.

“What is most important now is reorganising our party and doing all we can to bring our people together as leaders.

“For us in PDP, we believe in the unity of this nation and to ensure that everybody has equal right. So, the

Ekweremadu report stands. We must be careful not to bring the issue of elective offices to the front burner now.”