Baraje Reveals PDP NEC Agreement Affecting Party Chairman, Ayu

Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Baraje has revealed why there is much call for the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu to resign.

According to Baraje, the main opposition party has a tradition of zoning its party offices.

He further stated that the office of the National Chairman is expected to be zoned to the South if the presidential candidate comes from the North.

Baraje recalled a scenario that saw a former national chairman of the party in 2018, Ahmadu Ali go after the elections had been conducted and won.

The former chairman, during an interview on Arise TV, said the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) earlier this year during a meeting in Abuja agreed that party offices should be shared between the North and the South.

He further stated that NEC also agreed that whichever zone produced the presidential candidate should not produce the chairman.

Baraje said: “We have a tradition of zoning our party offices. It is not a new thing to us that if the presidential candidate comes from the North, the chairman comes from the South.

“What am I trying to say with those examples? It is to reinforce the fact that we have a tradition without people clamouring for it.

“We don’t kill the tradition of our party. We operate by our processes and I can tell you that the processes of putting things in order have started.

“It is not as a result of agitations or cries from any corner that the chairman should resign. We have a tradition and the party must keep to that tradition.

“This is a tradition of balancing, of all-inclusiveness, of carrying every member of the PDP across the board along without fear or favour.

“We have a tradition and law and we will behave by our law. We are saying that the process is to ensure that we keep the balancing by our constitution. It is a process and we can’t hurry that process beyond necessary.”