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A top politician in
Plateau State and a founding member of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador
Yahaya Kwande has advised the national
leadership of the party to come out
courageously to disqualify President
Goodluck Jonathan from presenting himself as
an aspirant of the party in the 2011
presidential election.
Reacting to a statement by INEC Chairman,
Professor Attahiru Jega that the Commission
would not accept candidates that violate
their parties’
constitutions, the former Ambassador to
Switzerland said the PDP leadership and
Jonathan should take the path of honour over
the zoning issue.
According to Kwande, Jonathan’s ambition
breaches Section 7 of the PDP amended
constitution, which unequivocally provides
for zoning of elective offices including the
presidency.He said that Justice Lawal
Gummi’s ruling on zoning that“The provision
of Article 7.2 (C) of the 1st Defendant’s
Constitution 2009 as amended recognises the
principle of zoning and rotation of party
and public elective offices. The said
article is subsisting and binding on the
party, its organs and members…”should be a
wakeup call for the President and the ruling
party to do the honourable.
“The PDP cannot eat its cake and have it.
The party needs to summon an urgent meeting
to take on a decision to either remove
zoning from the party’s constitution or
direct Jonathan to exit from the race to
save the party and indeed Nigeria from
further polarization,” he said.
.........Group commends INEC for insisting
parties play by rules
A group, Northern
League for Democracy (NLD) has commended the
Independent
National
Electoral Commission (INEC) for its stand in
not accepting candidates
of political
parties who emerge through flawed processes.
National Leader of the
Group, Alhaji Mohammed Kintrebor said in a
statement in
Abuja
yesterday that it was in support of the
courageous position of INEC that
all candidates
must emerge through strict compliance with
the constitutions of
their parties.
In particular, he said
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must
comply with
zoning of
elective offices as enshrined in Section 7
(2) of its amended
constitution.
“It is a courageous action taken by the INEC
to ensure that the political
parties
play by the rules they (the parties) have
set for themselves. The
parties
should take heed of this advice to avert
unnecessary heating up of the polity,” he
said.
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