The demand by the Ondo South Senatorial District for the chairmanship position of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is generating tension within the party in the state.

PDP has recently been facing some challenges, as its members are defecting in droves to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Rising from a meeting of no fewer than 120 stakeholders on Monday in Okitipupa, the members unanimously demanded that the chairmanship position be zoned to the district.

Out of the 27 years of PDP’s existence in the state, the north and central senatorial districts held the chairmanship position for 13 and 12 years, respectively, while the south only served as chairman for one year.

Some of the PDP chieftains, who spoke in separate interviews with journalists after the meeting, said the chairmanship position, which had rotated between the north and central senatorial districts for 25 years, must come to the south.

They also warned the PDP Elders’ Committee, whose constitutional responsibilities was solely advisory and dispute settlement, not to attempt setting up any zoning committee which, they said, fell within the purview of the State Working Committee (SWC).

They urged the Caretaker Committee, representing the SWC, to respect the law of equity, fairness and justice by not zoning the chairmanship to the north senatorial district again.

Chairman of PDP in Ondo South, Amos Fadope, said he summoned the stakeholders to the meeting when he noticed some developments.

“The north is holding the highest rank of the political structure, and the chairmanship position is supposed to come to Ondo south, but the north is planning to hijack it.

“We can cede other political positions to them except the chairmanship. We stakeholders in the south have unanimously agreed and made our position known to them. We urge the caretaker committee to do the needful,” Mr Fadope said.

Also, a former senator, Nicholas Tofowomo, noted that the south had been marginalised in the party’s chairmanship position.

Mr Tofowomo, who represented Ondo South in the National Assembly, alleged that some party chieftains in the north and central had connived to thwart the south’s chances of producing the chairman.

“The marginalisation must stop; those conniving to take the position back to the north will fail, and our stand on the issue will come to pass,” Mr Tofowomo said.

A former deputy chairman of PDP in Ondo, Tola Alabere, also said there was no going back on the zoning of the chairmanship position to the south senatorial district.

Mr Alabere warned the elders’ committee not to interfere in the matter, maintaining that its role within the party was purely advisory.

Oyedele Ibini, a former state secretary of the party, said the agitation for the chairmanship position was clear and nothing would stop the south from getting it.

(NAN)