Politics

PDP zoning panel didn’t throw open presidential ticket, Ortom confirms

Published

5 years ago

April 7, 2022

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and the Presidential zoning committee chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the committee didn’t throw the presidential ticket open as alleged by the media.

Ortom, who was on Arise Television on Wednesday, April 06, 2022, said that as the chairman of the zoning committee, they didn’t throw the presidential ticket open, they only reverted to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

“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 committee will present the report to NEC. It is the NEC that has the final authority on the zoning of positions.

“As far as the committee was concerned, there were arguments that the presidential candidate should go to the South. While some said it should go to the Northern part of the country. There were others who were of the opinion that it should be thrown open for the best candidate who will be able to deliver good governance and make Nigerians feel like human beings again.”

“As the chairman of the committee, we did not say that. So it is very wrong for anyone to insinuate that we have thrown the presidential ticket open. I am still repeating that, whatever we did, we have submitted our report to NEC. So it is wrong for the media to come out with a position despite the fact that they were not members of the committee.

“I came out to brief the media. So it is wrong completely. I did not say that. And like I said, NEC is the final authority on deciding where this position will be zoned to.”

According to him, NEC is the final authority on deciding on zoning, stressing that it is true that when the party positions were being zoned he was the deputy chairman of the committee and they agreed as directed by NEC that in zoning party positions they should do it rightly without minding where the president would come from.