SAN FRANCISCO, October 24, (THEWILL) – Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, Chairman, PDP National Caretaker Committee (NCC), has said that his committee has no power on micro zoning of elective positions.
“As a committee, our powers are limited to the decisions taken at the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt.
“The convention agreed to zone the national chairmanship to the South while its ticket in the 2019 presidential election was zoned to the north. We cannot go beyond that and decide which part of the north or south should produce what,” he said on Tuesday.
Markarfi gave the clarification when the NCC members met with eight national chairmanship aspirants at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
He said that the clarification was important considering the insinuations going round.
“Some people think that I, as chairman of the caretaker committee, should assume the power that we don’t have.
“We have no power beyond the convention and the party’s constitution.
“I want to remind all of us that the only thing our convention did was to zone two positions. The caretaker committee cannot go beyond that.
“To assume that the chairman of the caretaker committee can come and exercise power that he doesn’t have, and start dishing out orders, that will be undemocratic. That will have no basis or foundation in our constitution.”
THEWILL recalls that the main opposition party which had been in crisis since it lost power in 2015 is trying to get its house together and has slated its elective national convention for December 2017.
Makarfi urged the aspirants to close ranks and work together so as to avoid mistakes of the past, pointing out that it was only when the party succeeded that every member would smile.
He said that the meeting was aimed at giving every aspirant the opportunity to state his vision and plans for the party if elected its national chairman.
“We decided that we should meet, discuss and hear from you, as we prepare for the convention,” he said.
NAN reports that the committee thereafter went into a closed door meeting with the chairman aspirants.
Among aspirants at the meeting were Sen. Rasheed Ladoja, former Oyo Governor; Prof. Tunde Adeniran, former education minister; Chief Gbenga Daniel, former Ogun governor, and Chief Raymond Dokpesi, Founder, Daar Communications.
Others were Chief Olabode George, former PDP National Deputy Chairman; Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, former sports and special duties minister, Mr Jimi Agbaje, PDP candidate in the 2015 Lagos governorship race, and Prince Uche Secondus, former PDP acting National Chairman.
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