I Am Not Makarfi Candidate. - Secondus

A PDP chairmanship aspirant, Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday said he is not the candidate of the chairman of the party’s national caretaker committee, Sen Ahmed Makarfi.

This comes as former Minister of Women Affairs and a contender for deputy national chairman, Hajia Inna Ciroma, warned that the party cannot afford to get it wrong at the forthcoming national convention.

She added that the North rejected PDP in 2015 because it abandoned zoning principle, noting however that the party has learnt its lesson ahead of 2019.

Secondus who spoke at the party national secretariat in Abuja, after submitting his nomination form, also stressed that at no time was the national chairmanship position micro-zoned to South West geo-political zone by stakeholders from the zone.

He noted that the position was zoned to the 17 states in the South, same way presidential ticket of the PDP for 2019 polls was zoned to the 19 states in the North, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He further clarified that he didn’t bother to contest for national chairman at the botched national convention last year in Port Harcourt because party leaders from the South micro-zoned it to the Southwest.

Reacting to claims that he enjoys Makarfi’s support, Secondus, who was a former deputy national chairman of the party, said “Makarfi is not paving way for my emergence. There is no truth to that statement. I have been going round quietly and canvassing for votes. I have not held any meeting with Makarfi and he has not endorsed me. There was no time that the office (national chairmanship) was micro zoned.

“The office of national chairman is zoned to 17 Southern states of the federation and president zoned to 19 Northern states. Let’s not dwell on misinterpretation; aspirants know this unless they want to be mischievous,” he added.