High Chief Raymond Dokpesi an ally of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has disclosed that the party constitution allows Northern Nigeria to present a presidential candidate up to 2027.
Dokpesi who spoke during Shekarau’s defection party on Tuesday, accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of jettisoning the chances of the South to continue where Late YarAdua stopped.
He said, “in 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan was angling to contest elections, I personally wrote to him and asked him not to do so, to either go on vacation after completing YarAdua’s tenure or join the incoming government, so he can come back and complete his full eight years”.
“But he was advised otherwise and adhered to that and that is what led to the crises we have today and what also allowed the North to continue producing the President till 2027.”
Raymond Dokpesi said, ” I have been a member of the PDP from inception, I read and I know every stage of the party activities. Out of the 16 years the PDP rule, the North served only two years, that was why I opposed Jonathan in 2015 when he was running for elections, I told him he should allow the North complete their eight years then he will have his full eight years after resting for a while”.
So it is not true that it is the turns of the South in PDP, what Jonathan did was what brought about the crises which some people are pushing up.”
He said the truth of the matter is that some of the social media handlers are worried that it is not possible for the North to have the Chairman of the Party, Presidential Candidate and Board of Trustees Chairman and maybe the Campaign DG also from the North.
“Now it is because we are not situating issues at their proper perspective, the truth of the matter is that the PDP has a constitution and it has said that people are elected and rotated on eight years basis.”
“So in 2019 that was when the PDP started its rotations, From that year up to 2027, the North is supposed to still present the President under PDP so there is nothing wrong in Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy and we are not in 2027 yet we are still in 2023.”
“We lost the 2015 elections because we didn’t adhere to the rotational Presidency and since then what has changed? nothing.”
On Ibrahim Shekarau’s defections to the PDP, Dokpesi claimed the former APC man was not an aristocrat but a down-to-earth person with the talakawas in his mind.
He said Shekarau believes in the educational, infrastructural and social wellbeing of the masses