2019: Ben Obi Says Atiku's VP Has Been Zoned To South-East

A former National Secretary, Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party,Senator Ben Obi, has hinted that the Vice President position for Atiku Abubakar had been zoned to the South-East.

According to him, zoning the VP slot to the South-East was one of the recommendations of the Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu committee, which has been adopted by the National Working Committee, NWC of the PDP.

After losing the 2015 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress, APC, the first time an incumbent party was losing a presidential election in Nigeria, the PDP raised the Ekweremadu committee, which was handed a nine-point terms of reference, the sum of which was to find out what went wrong and to chart a trajectory for the restoration of the fortunes of the party.

Speaking on the issue in a telephone chat with Vanguard, yesterday, Senator Obi said: ”After the 2015 election, the party set up the Ekweremadu Committee. The Committee recommended that the party should zone the presidency to the North and the vice presidency to the South-East. The National Working Committee, NWC endorsed the recommendations of the committee.”

Following Sunday’s emergence of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the presidential candidate of the PDP, there has been a rat race of sort between the South-East and South-West geo-political zones to produce his running mate.

Some names mentioned in connection with the vice presidency position include former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi; Senator Ekweremadu, Osita Chidoka, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina among others.