Gov Godswill Akpabio and Rivers PDP

This means that the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio does not have the right to determine how members of the party should handle the sensitive issue of zoning in Rivers State. Does he think that Rivers is an extension of his state? He can determine what happens in Akwa Ibom, […]

This means that the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio does not have the right to determine how members of the party should handle the sensitive issue of zoning in Rivers State.
Does he think that Rivers is an extension of his state? He can determine what happens in Akwa Ibom, not Rivers.
Since 1999 when this democratic journey started, respective governors of the state have come from the same zone. This is easily verifiable. In a live television programme on November 13, 2014, Governor Akpabio said that because the PDP is in opposition in Rivers State, zoning should not be rigidly followed. Again, the constitution of the party does not state that should it be in opposition in a state, the principle of zoning should be ignored. On the contrary, Section 7 of the party’s constitution clearly encourages rotation of elective offices for equity, fairness, justice and freedom.
The fact remains that Rivers is undeniably a PDP state; that Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was forced out of the party by a clique led by Chief Nyesom Wike, the immediate past Minister of State for Education, does not mean otherwise.  
It would be recalled that Governor Akpabio was brought into the Akwa Ibom government as Commissioner for Petroleum by the then Governor Victor Attah. And when Attah mooted the idea to present him as the replacement for his deputy, Chris Ekpenyong, there was stiff opposition from the elders of the party.
Ebitomo Tenesie, former organising secretary of the PDP, is in Port Harcourt, Rivers State ([email protected]).