The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southeast has aligned with the positions of the party’s stakeholders in the SouthSouth and Southwest that Nigeria’s next President should come from the South.

The stance, which is also tandem with that of the Southern Governors’ Forum, was made known just as Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike formally confirmed his presidential ambition after meeting with Benue State PDP stakeholders in Makurdi.

SouthSouth and Southwest leaders of the PDP had at their separate meetings last week also reiterated the Southern Governors Forum’s insistence that the next Nigerian leader must be from the South.

Briefing reporters after the party’s Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) meeting in Enugu yesterday, the National Vice-Chairman, Ali Odefa, said: “We stand with the resolution of the Southern Governors’ Forum that the Office of the Presidency should be zoned to the Southern part of Nigeria.”

He said that the ZEC also directed that the existing zoning patterns in states and constituencies in the Southeast must be strictly adhered to.

“We said where there are zoning patterns they must be strictly observed and adhered to in every state and constituency,” Odefa explained.

He added that the ZEC made also “interventions for our members who are holding political and elective positions in Anambra State who didn’t defect to other political parties in the time of the election but stood by the party (PDP) in times of bad weather to return to their various offices.”

Odefa said the zonal leadership of the PDP would make a presentation to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for assistance in that regard.

The meeting was attended by Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); and National Secretary of the PDP Sam Anyanwu.

Members of the National Assembly from the zone, Houses of Assembly members in the zone as well as members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BOT) from the zone were also in attendance.

On the issue of zoning at the state and constituency levels in the zone, the PDP National Vice Chairman stated: “We said where there are zoning patterns they must be strictly observed and adhered to in every state and constituency”.

Chief Odefa added: “We also went ahead to make interventions for our members who are holding political and elective positions in Anambra State who didn’t defect to other political parties during the election but stood by the party, that they should be given support to return to their various offices”.