Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to avoid being stampeded into zoning its 2023 presidential ticket to the south. 

Mr Abubakar, who was PDP’s flag bearer in the 2019 presidential election, made this call on Tuesday while speaking with members of the party’s Board of Trustees in Abuja. 

“The many years of PDP government; eight years and six years, all of them were from the south. So, we should not be stampeded by the opposition party. They have a moral obligation,” Mr Abubakar said. 

“We invented and formulated this zoning policy simply because we wanted every part of this country to have a sense of belonging and I personally have paid my dues on the issue of zoning.

“Therefore, you cannot come and try to imply that the PDP has not been following the zoning policy,” Mr Abubakar added. 

The former vice president’s comment comes amid agitation for the PDP to zone its presidential ticket to the south. 

Last year, Southern governors, regardless of party affiliation, in a communique, said Southern Nigeria must produced the next president.

If the opposition party zones its presidential ticket to the south, Mr Abubakar and other northerners in the PDP could be schemed out of the contest. 

Peoples Gazette had reported that Mr Abubakar was warming up to contest for president in 2023 under the PDP, a report he confirmed when he visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta a few weeks ago. 

In September 2021, The Gazette exposed how Mr Abubakar, in a desperate move to be president, paid $16.5 million to a U.S. firm to help launder his image in the run-up to the 2019 presidential poll.