More Crisis for APC as Rivers APC wants Presidency zoned to N"Delta

BY CHUKWUDI AKASIKE

THE All Progressives Congress in Rivers State has demanded that the position of the president, the vice president or the national chairman of the party should be zoned to the Niger Delta region.

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The state APC explained that it was necessary for the people of Niger Delta to get one of the three major positions in order to encourage it to continue to fight for the victory of the party.

Senior Special Assistant on Media to the Interim State Chairman of the party, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, who spoke in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Sunday, said one of the positions must come to the oil-rich region.

Eze maintained that the APC at the national level would be unfair to the people of the region if it decided not to zone any of the three positions to the Niger Delta.

“The sacrifices those of us in Niger Delta have made to make the APC popular in this area; if the party does not consider all these sacrifices and let us assume that President Goodluck Jonathan gets the ticket (of the Peoples Democratic Party), what would we depend on to ask Niger Delta people to vote for APC when there is no responsible or reasonable position given to us (Niger Delta)?

“So, if the position of the presidency, vice presidency or the chairman of the party is not ceded to this place, in other words, they are asking us to slow down.

“Therefore, any calculation, they (national APC) without putting this factor into consideration, they are not fair to the people from this area,” Eze said.

He explained that the attendance of President Jonathan’s daughter’s wedding by the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was not an indication that he (Amaechi) was planning a return to the PDP.

The state APC media officer said Amaechi’s presence at Jonathan’s daughter’s wedding in Abuja showed that the Rivers State governor had a forgiving spirit.

It will be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Amaechi, who is the leader of the APC in Rivers State, unexpectedly attended former Miss Faith Jonathan’s wedding, a development that had raised doubt about Amaechi’s continued membership of the APC.

Explaining that Amaechi was still in APC, Eze added that the governor would not return to the PDP without consulting members of the APC.

More Crisis for APC as Rivers APC wants Presidency zoned to N"Delta