2023: PDP won’t exclude Jonathan, Atiku, others from seeking presidential ticket –Secondus

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would not exclude former president Goodluck Jonathan, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar and other  from seeking its presidential ticket in 2023.

Its National Chairman, Uche Secondus,  stated this at an interactive session with journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, to mark the third year anniversary of the National Working Committee (NWC).

However, he said the party was waiting for report of its 2019 election review committee, headed by Bauchi Governor, Bala Mohammed, to decide on the zoning of its presidential ticket.

The committee was set up in February to review the outcome of the 2019 polls and make appropriate recommendations to the party.

PDP chairman said just like it did in the aftermath of the 2015 polls, the opposition party needed to do a postmortem of the 2019 polls, before deciding on zoning for the 2023 presidential contest.

“I know you, the media, are interested in zoning, but our party has a clear method of doing things. After the general election, we set up a panel to study and appraise our performance and make necessary recommendations.

“Governor Mohammed is heading the committee and they are still working. We did the same thing when we lost election in 2015. We set up the Ike Ekweremadu committee to look into why we lost. It was from that report that the party took action towards 2019.

“The same way, this time, we must study our last outing before looking ahead. We can’t be talking of zoning when we have not appraised how we faired in the last election,” he said.

While responding on the speculated comeback bid of former president Jonathan, Secondus said every member of the party is free to seek for its presidential ticket.