Give Igbos National Chairman Position or We’ll Take Our Votes Elsewhere: Group Threatens PDP in Wike vs. Atiku Debate

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

The South East Revival Group (SERG), a sociopolitical organization, has claimed that unless certain requirements are met, Igbos won’t support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the elections of 2023.
The SERG rejected the position of Board of Trustees (BOT) chairman assigned to the region by the PDP in a statement released on Friday under the leadership of its President and National Coordinator, Chief Willy Ezugwu, claiming that anything less than the chairperson position is inadequate.

The group issued a warning, pointing out that the PDP is purposely depriving Igbos and the Southeast of leadership posts, just like the All Progressives Congress (APC) did.

According to the statement, the south should have naturally received the PDP presidential ticket, but this was prevented by manipulation.

According to Ezugwu’s comments, the PDP is demonstrating that it has no concern for the area, and unless the party changes course, it would pay a price in the upcoming 2023 elections.

Following the denial of the Igbos’ well-deserved presidential ticket and the position of their presidential candidate’s running mate, the statement reads, “It will not be out of place for the South East in particular to produce the national chairman of the PDP.

“We hereby emphatically oppose the position that the South East was given by the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT).

Therefore, we believe that denying Igbos all of the PDP’s decision-making positions at this crucial time would be the party’s most insensitive move if it meant jeopardizing the region’s residents’ steadfast devotion to the party since 1999.

“The SERG completely agrees with the PDP leaders in the South that the South should hold the PDP national leadership position. The PDP has chosen to follow the route of nepotism and hostility mapped out by the ruling APC against the South East, thus Igbos will unanimously turn their attention elsewhere if they don’t want to.

We sternly advise the PDP not to follow the APC’s example of excluding Igbos from important party jobs before the general elections of 2023.

Bringing Justice to the Southeast
The Southeast being denied leadership posts in the PDP while yet being expected to win the popular vote is an utter unfairness, it was observed.

In the 2023 general elections, the people of Southern Nigeria will respond in kind, the statement said, “and trivializing the demand of Southern Nigeria, especially the South East, for justice in sharing party posts in the PDP.”

We back Wike.
The group went on to announce its unwavering support for Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who maintained that Iyorchia Ayu, not BOT Chairman Walid Jibrin, should quit in order to put a stop to the crisis roiling the PDP.

“In our opinion, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and other PDP leaders in the south are correct to argue that the party’s national chairmanship must go back to the region before the 2023 presidential election.

“The situation is even more insulting for Southern Nigeria, from the conversations so far, as it has become very obvious that both Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, and Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s national chairman, are not prepared to honor their own words to the effect that, if the North produces the party’s presidential candidate, the PDP chairmanship position will go to the South.

SERG posed the following query: “How can we expect these PDP officials to act honorably after the PDP has won the presidential election if they cannot be trusted to honor their own words before to the general election?”