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Igbinedion, South South leaders differ on presidential bid
From Mike Osunde,
Benin
THE ambition of the South South geo-political zone to wrestle the presidency in 2007 may have run aground yesterday as a meeting of the zone's leaders expressed divided opinions on the project.
Although, many of them were determined to push ahead with the project even if they failed to grab it in the end, Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion, who hosted the leaders, favoured a northern presidency based on a certain "gentleman's agreement" which he did not elaborate upon.
The zone should settle for the vice-presidential slot, Igbinedion told his guests who included the Delta State Governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori, former Chief of General Staff Admiral Mike Akhigbe, General David Ejoor, Chief Edwin Clark, Admiral Festus Porbeni and Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
He said: "If it is the vice-presidency, you have my support except you are able to convince me on the presidency."
But Ibori pledged his support for the project being championed by the South-South Peoples' Assembly (SSPA), whose executives were holding a meeting in Benin, the Edo State capital.
Chief Clark said the assembly should go ahead with the project despite the misgivings, adding: "We will not change. If at the end of the day we do not succeed, let it be so."
Clark in outright difference to Igbinedion's stance, declared: "The north has been ruling this country. If Anenih (Chief Tony Anenih) is towing the party line, let him go ahead. But if we have the president, that president will ensure that development is spread."
But Akhigbe in answer to the question whether producing the next president from the South South region was an agenda of the SSPA, retorted: "Are we not part of Nigeria? And don't we deserve to have the presidency?
On how prepared the zone was for the project, Admiral Akhigbe said. "If you have been to the various wards, various local councils; if you read the mood of our people and we have not hidden it, we have said it loud and clear."
Akhigbe said the project should not be that of the assembly alone, adding that he had enlisted journalists to carry the message.
He said: "It is for equity and justice in this country. It is for the good of our people and I think all of us, including you, should be in the vanguard."
Earlier, while speaking during the courtesy call on Governor Igbinedion, the prime mover of the South South Assembly, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, mentioned the 2007 and the role expected of sons and daughters from the zone in representing the interest of the zone as the concern of the group.
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