By Agabus Pwanagba Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a former member of the House of Representatives from Plateau State, and ...
By Agabus Pwanagba
Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a former member of
the House of Representatives from Plateau State, and a chieftain of the main
opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Bitrus Kaze has declared that
he will not work for the party’s candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
He said he would instead work towards the emergence Labour
Party’s candidate, Peter Obi.
He also said working for Atiku would be a betrayal of trust,
because his emergence as a candidate was against the party’s zoning formula.
He equally said working for Labour Party’s Obi is being
faithful to PDP’s zoning formula which is enshrined in its constitution.
Kaze made his declaration in an interview with journalists
in Jos, the Plateau State capital, saying if the PDP did not respect its zoning
formula, his support for Obi does not amount to anti-party.
He said, “Let me be honest with you, I won’t work for Atiku,
because doing so offends our social, religious, and even our economic
responsibilities.
“That somebody from the North-West would be President for eight
years, you expect somebody from the North-East, same religion like the outgoing
to be there for another eight years; it will be betrayal of trust for me to
commit myself for such a project on the Plateau, I will not.”
“As a person, I’m at home with Peter Obi, and I will suggest
to our people to vote for him, because his candidature pronounces justice, he
carries every section of this country.
“I’m not afraid to say it, I’m prepared to say it anywhere”,
he maintained.
Kaze, who represented Jos South/Jos East Federal
Constituency between 2007 to 2015, however, said, “If the PDP is able to take
the ticket from the North and give anybody from the South, I will support that
person.”
“But to the extent that the PDP has infringed upon its own
constitution, I will remain faithful to the constitution of the party by
supporting anybody from Southern Nigeria, and the closest is Peter Obi”, Kaze
stressed.
According to him, “In Plateau State, they have learnt from
their mistake of 2015, when they refused to zone the governorship to Plateau
South, and we lost the election; now its the turn of Plateau Central and the
PDP in the State has respected that by zoning it there.
“So, if I did not support the PDP candidate (late Sen. Gyang
Pwajok) in my State (Plateau) in 2015, I will be unfair to him, if I support
the candidature of Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential race.”
“Like Peter Obi or not; you can be diehard PDP or APC but
his movement is reigning and raiding everywhere in this country; nobody can
pretend not to take cognisance of this, because Nigerians feel both APC and PDP
on the presidential tickets are avoidable, there is no question about that.
“Therefore, I don’t want to discuss Christian-Christian or
Muslim-Muslim ticket; my own is simple, the constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria provides that this country must be administered in a manner
that commands national loyalty; the constitution of the PDP says that there
shall be zoning, and it shall be enforced.
“If PDP does not respect zoning at the presidential level,
at what level would it respect zoning?”. He queried.
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