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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Prof ABC Nwosu, has resigned from the party.
Nwosu, a close associate of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was Minister of Health under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
In a letter addressed to the national chairman of the PDP, Sen Iyorchia Ayu and acting chairman of the BoT, Sen Adolphus Wabara, Nwosu said he was leaving the party because of its inability to adhere to the zoning arrangement in its constitution.
“I hereby resign my membership of the Peoples Democratic Party and its Board of Trustees with effect from today, Thursday 12th January, 2023.
“This resignation for me is a matter of conscience and principle because of the party’s inability to adhere to the rotation provision in its (PDP) constitution.
“The journey to rotational presidency between the North and South of Nigeria has been a long and arduous one and I have been involved,” he said.
The former minister said the opposition party “must learn” to respect the provisions in its constitution and the agreement reached by party members.
“Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must learn to keep to an agreement reached by a Constituent Assembly (1995), and enshrined in the Party’s (PDP) Constitution (1998),” he added.
In the build up to the PDP presidential primary in May 2022, party members demanded that the presidential ticket be zoned to the South.
But the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) approved the zoning committee’s report that the presidential ticket should be thrown open.
The fallout of the decision led to internal wrangling in the party with some members refusing to support Abubakar, who emerged as standard-bearer.
