Daily Independent Online.
*
Thursday, July 01, 2004.
2007: South East PDP chairmen insist
on Igbo presidency
By Ben Duru
Correspondent, Owerri
The clamour for an Igbo person to become president in 2007
got a further boost on Wednesday when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairmen
in the South East backed the clamour.
The chairmen, who issued a communiqué at the end of
their one-day meeting in Owerri, Imo State, reiterated their support for the
emergence of a president of Igbo extraction in 2007.
According to the communiqué read by
the PDP chairman in Enugu State, Chief Onyioha Nwankwo, , the chairmen
commended President Olusegun Obasanjo on his statement that the presidency has
not been zoned.
They noted that the president’s
statement would help to douse frayed nerves and ensure that stakeholders
dialogue to determine which zone should takes the shot in 2007.
Also, the Imo State Deputy Governor, Chief
Ebere Udeagu, has urged that the party to sustain the clamour of the people of
the South East to produce the president in 2007.
He said the need to continue pushing the project to all the
nooks and crannies of the country was necessary to bring to the notice of the
rest of Nigeria how Igbo has fared since 1960.
Udeagu made the call when he received the
PDP chairmen who visited him at Government House, Owerri.
According to him, “South East will
not disappoint Nigerians if a presidential slot is given to them,”
stressing that the zone needed the presidential seat not only as a right but to
correct some of the ills that has bedeviled the country.
The state chairman of the party, Dr. Alex
Obi, said the chairmen were in the state to hold their usual meetings, adding
that the visit was to inform the government of their position on crucial issues
affecting the South East especially the 2007 presidency.
He also saluted the cordial relationship existing between the
chairmen and party members as well as the way governors in the South East have
been piloting affairs since the enthronement of democracy.
