The choice of former Anambra State Gov. Peter Obi as the running mate to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election is tearing the party apart in the South East.
Rising from a closed door meeting on Saturday, the leadership of the party in the South East dissociated itself from the choice insisting it was not consulted before the decision and announcement of Obi as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting which held at the Independence Layout residence of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, Gov. of Ebonyi state, Dave Umahi, disclosed that they only heard of the appointment on social media and expected that they would be carried along prior to the announcement.
The News that Obi had been chosen as running mate for the PDP presidential candidate was first broken on Friday by Senator Ben Murray Bruce via a post on his twitter handle.
Umahi, therefore said that the party leadership still expected that Atiku would visit to inform them about the choice he made.
The emergency meeting had been summoned by the party leadership soon after the news of Obi’s emergence as the choice of running mate made the rounds.
Present at the meeting were all PDP governors in the zone, some members of the National Assembly from the zone, zonal leaders among others.
The meeting had earlier been scheduled to hold at the party’s zonal headquarters, but was later moved to the residence of the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu.
However , the candidate of the PDP in the 2017 governorship election in Anambra, Mr. Oseloka Obaze, has picked holes with the position of the party leadership on Atiku’s choice.
He said what was going on was the antics of few persons in the party.
Speaking to newsmen also after the meeting the former governorship candidate said that it had never been a tradition that a presidential candidate would consult on a zonal level before choosing a running mate.
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Obazi cautioned the party not go into the election divided.
“As the leader of the party in Anambra, I want to say that we support the choice of Mr. Peter Obi. He is our son but we are here saying we are not aware of his nomination.
“We need to support him and the party,” he said.
Obaze condemned the conduct of the governors who took off from the residence of Ekweremadu without meeting with party faithful who attended the meeting describing it as “most regrettable.”
He said further, “I have heard corridor talks about passing a resolution to repudiate the selection of Obi as Atiku’s running mate.
“I hope that those who champion such cause will also have the courage to sign their names to the resolution so that in the fullness of time our posterity will appreciate our folly.
“If we lose the present opportunity to produce the vice president due to the whims of a few among us, Ndigbo will never recover the past and history will be unkind to us.”
