PDP Zoning Panel Didn’t Throw Open Presidential Ticket, Says Ortom

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and the Presidential zoning committee chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the committee didn’t throw the presidential ticket open as alleged by the media.

Ortom who was on Arise Television on Wednesday said that as the chairman of the zoning committee, they didn’t throw the presidential ticket open, they only reverted to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

“It is wrong for anybody to say that we threw open the presidential ticket. We have to revert to NEC. It is wrong for the media to come up with a position, and the media were not members of the committee. During our discussion, the media were not there.

“After the meeting, I came out to brief the media, so it was surprising to see the headlines on newspapers, televisions and radios. We have to correct that because it is wrong.

According to him, NEC is the final authority on deciding on zoning, stressing that it is true that when the party positions were being zoned he was the deputy chairman of the committee and they agreed as directed by NEC that in zoning party positions they should do it rightly without minding where the president would come from, but restrict ourselves to party positions so that when the time comes for presidential zoning, NEC would take a decision.

“I believe in justice and fairness, when the issues came up last year I made my position known. PDP has not yet brought out any report; it will be done by NEC.

“I want to appeal to all Nigerians who are passionate because some of them have spoken to me; they want PDP to get it right. We are consciously ensuring that the right thing is done, so I believe that at the end, by the grace of God we will get it right but preempting the committee’s work and NEC’s decision is not right.

“I want to appeal that they should allow NEC to invite us to a meeting and soon a decision will be taken. People who have recommendations or observations can present them to the chairman of our party or to some of us, and on the day that we are discussing, we can make their views known,” he said.