Adamawa PDP kicks against zoning

Endorsement of the zoning of governorship slot to the Adamawa Central Senatorial District by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Working Committee (NWC) has created disaffection in the state chapter of the party.

Some aspirants in the aborted October 11 governorship bye-election in Adamawa State, led by Ahmed Gulak, former senior special adviser on Political Matters to President Goodluck Jonathan, had last week called on the party’s national leadership to adopt an earlier position on the zoning of the governorship slot to Adamawa Central Senatorial District.
Addressing newsmen last Thursday at the end of an emergency national working committee, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, had announced the party’s resolve to restrict its governorship primary in Adamawa to only the aspirants from Adamawa Central.
Metuh further noted that the decision was in line with an agreement reached with aspirants at a meeting presided over by Senate President, David Mark, before the botched governorship election.
But addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, a group, The Adamawa Collective (TAC), dismissed the declaration of the party’s NWC as unacceptable. National Coordinator of TAC, Mr. Eli Gamaniel, and Secretary, Dr. Panny Boga, told journalists that the governor, Bala Ngilari, was the target of the pronouncement by the Adamu Mu’azu leadership of PDP for zoning the governorship to Adamawa Central.
They further expressed concern over the party’s decision to uphold an agreement reached without the knowledge of Governor Ngilari, who was at that time challenging his removal as deputy governor.
Also, Boga alleged that the latest pronouncement by the party national leadership was instigated by Mu’azu and the Principal Private Secretary to the President, Alhaji Hassan Tukur, all in an effort to foist a particular ethnic group and a candidate on the majority of Adamawa people.