If APC goes against Delta zoning pattern, it will spell doom for the party in 2023 -Ebiakpo

By Princess Atevure,

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Delta State and Chairmanship hopeful, Hon Ebiakpo Ezebri has reiterated his call for the zoning of the State party chairmanship to Delta South senatorial district if APC desires to win Delta governorship in 2023 elections.

Recall that the former APC State Financial Secretary had said after collecting his nomination form last week that the party can’t marginalize Delta South and hope to occupy win the governorship election in 2023.

Speaking on party proposed zoning formula that purportedly zoned the position of state party chairman to Delta Central, he cautioned, that should the party act on sentiment instead of logic to zone the party Chairmanship position to Delta Central or North, APC should forget about winning Delta State.

According to Ebiakpo, the Delta South senatorial district occupies a strategic position and has to be the decider of who becomes the governor of Delta State since 1999 till date, and the Ijaws been the majority ethnic group from the district is critical to any party that wants to win Delta.

While urging the National party leadership to hack to his warning, stated that Delta State is for APC to win if the right thing is done by taking a second look on the issue of the zoning of the party offices, he tasked them to ensure that all sections of the state are fairly treated.

He disclosed that the winning formula for the party is for its governorship candidate to come from Delta central in 2023, while Delta north will produce the deputy and Delta South produces the party’s State Chairman, noting that anything short of that will spell doom for APC.

“We want the party to note that PDP will zone their state chairman to Delta South in 2023, governorship candidate will come from Delta central, while Delta North will produce the deputy governorship candidate and to balance the power play, APC should also adopt the zoning pattern. Anything short of this is a disaster, this is the winning formula, even a political neophyte in Delta knows this, and so, we are disturbed that our party leaders are not seeing this.

“If APC goes against this zoning pattern, it means the party wants to lose the election, PDP zoning pattern has become a norm that is generally accepted that power rotates amongst the three senatorial districts.

“We are, therefore, begging the party leadership to look into this issue critically, we want to win election in 2023, we are tired of playing the opposition in Delta, and 2023 presents our best chance of wrestling power from the PDP because the people are tired of their misrule.

“A lot of people are sitting on the fence and watching to see if APC will do things differently by providing a credible alternative to PDP by being more equitable and transparent in our dealings before they will come out to support us, hence we are making this call to our leader to do what is right.

“If APC leaders in Delta act out of sentiments or fear of the unknown by going against the expectations of Deltans and zone the party chairman to Delta central or Delta North, it will spell doom for the party in 2023 governorship election.

“All we are saying is that the party should zone its chairmanship to Delta South because Delta South has always played a key role in the politics of that state and anybody who is planning to undermine the people of Delta South in APC will be doing that at his own peril.

“This is not about me if the Ijaws in the APC says that I, Ebiakpo that should be the State Chairman because of grassroots support and my commitment to the party good and fine, if not, the party can choose another Ijaw man for the job and if he defeats me at the primary, I will support him.

“The summary is that the State Chairman should be zone to Delta South, the Isoko has occupied it for 8 years now, when it comes to the south, Ijaws and Itsekiri will negotiate on who to produce the state chairman.