South East PDP didn’t discuss zoning, says Okonkwo

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant for the November 6, 2021, gubernatorial poll in Anambra State, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo, has declared that at no time during the stakeholders’ meeting in Enugu meeting did the issues of zoning or disqualification of candidates feature.

PDP stakeholders in the South-East stakeholders met in Enugu State on Monday to strategise on winning the Anambra poll, which is a low hanging fruit for the party.
Decrying the “tissues of misinformation” trailing last Monday’s meeting, Okonkwo supported the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who urged members to join hands and work for the collective victory of the party.

He stressed that the meeting did not alter or cancel the earlier decision by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), which declared that the party was focused on winning the governorship election with the best candidate irrespective of his/her zone.

In a statement made available to The Guardian by his Dikeora Media Office (DMO), Okonkwo said his attention was drawn to a misleading story on an online platform hosted by a rival aspirant alleging that he (Okonkwo) had been excluded from the contest on the basis of zoning.

“The South-East Zonal leadership meeting of PDP with some stakeholders from Anambra, at Government House, Enugu, did not take any decision on where the governorship candidate of the party in Anambra would come from.

“The meeting also did not alter or cancel the earlier decision of the NWC, which insisted that the focus of the party was to win the governorship election with the best candidate irrespective of his/her zone,” he stated.

While assuring his supporters across the length and breadth of the state that Okonkwo is fully in the race to win, the Dikeora Media Office recalled that the NWC had in August 2020, at a world press conference in Abuja addressed by the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, stated that it would not adopt an internal policy of another party for the Anambra governorship election.
“The PDP NWC also insisted that the Ndubuisi Nwobu executive remains the only recognised PDP leadership in Anambra and urged all government agencies and bodies to deal with the Nwobu-exco in any matter relating to PDP in the state.

“At no time, therefore, did the meeting of the zonal leadership of PDP in Enugu on Monday discard the above decisions and adopted zoning. That did not happen,” DMO declared.