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Frontline pan-Igbo sociopolitical pressure organisation, the South East Revival Group (SERG) has urged the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to focus his energy on his 2023 presidential campaign, warning that all efforts of PDP leaders to link Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to their zoning miscalculation will fail.

The group made this known while reacting to “comments credited to Atiku’s Spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, over the weekend, where he accused Governor Wike of suffocating PDP’s efforts to micro-zone its presidential ticket to the South East due to his interest in the said ticket.”

The SERG noted that “Bwala, though a good communicator, should have looked for a more convincing line of argument for his defence of the indefensible.

“If PDP was that desperate to give the presidential slot to the South East, why was zoning of the presidential ticket to the South East not included in terms of reference given to earlier committee before PDP’s national convention?

Why was the National Chairman of the party elected before the inauguration of the 37-man zoning committee chaired by Benue state Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom if not to achieve a predetermined end?

“Knowing what was contained in the PDP constitution, was it not a miscalculation by the PDP to have elected itself National chairman before considering the zoning of the presidential ticket?

“At this juncture, the Atiku campaign organization must be reminded that all the governors of Southern states, including Governor Wike, had rejected throwing the presidential ticket open, insisting that the contest should be left as a Southern affair in the same manner it was done in 2019 when the party zoned the presidential ticket to the North. If this was done, Bwala’s argument would have made a little sense to the people of South East.

“It is unfortunate that before the PDP are the aftermaths its miscalculations and the outcome of schemings by pro-Atiku interests, including the former governor of Jigawa state, Sule Lamido, who made strong arguments in favour of throwing the party’s presidential ticket open to all without recourse to the parties constitutional provision on zoning.

“For sure, in 2023, the South East will certainly reward the PDP for not accommodating the region in its calculations ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“Therefore, all the efforts of the Atiku camp to pitch the South East against Governor Wike will fail as the South East region has long noted events that snowballed into the emergence of the PDP presidential candidate and will proportionately reply the party in February 2023”, the SERG said.

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