A leading civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described the failure by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to zone the office of President in 2023 to Southern Nigeria as a monumental fraud and betrayal of trust of their members, especially in Southern Nigeria.

HURIWA noted that PDP has benefitted so much by way of loyalty and goodwill from the people, especially from the Igbo-speaking nationality of Nigeria.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko on Thursday, said it was also fraudulent and utterly self-centred for anyone to argue that zoning of offices during elections by political parties was not constitutionally enshrined.

The group stated that the larger and associated legal implications of section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution which obliges government to distribute appointments to reflect the Federal character of Nigeria was same and identical with the agreement by the political parties to rotate political offices between the North and the South of Nigeria for equity, peace, unity and integration of all segments of the society.

“Besides, HURIWA said politicians must not be allowed to flout the ethics of governance by saying one thing in day time but to quickly deny same at night because politics was not a criminal enterprise but a career that was guided by morality, the laws, conventions and practices that have become precedents.

“Rotation of the offices of President, governors, down to even Councillorship positions, was a practice that has been mainstreamed by the political parties like All Progressives Congress, and the Peoples Democratic Party,” HURIWA stated.

HURIWA accused the PDP of gambling with the intelligence of the Southern Nigerian ethnicities by suddenly refusing to give life to the time-tested and time-honoured agreement of the founding members of one of Nigeria's largest political groupings only because it became imperative that South East of Nigeria was the most deserving of the office of President of Nigeria.

“What PDP has done by dashing the hopes of their members and the good people of Southern Nigeria by throwing the Presidency open to all zones was not much different from what scammers with wonder banks do to their unsuspecting customers who are usually deceived, lured with sugarcoated promises of multi-layered interest rates to invest their assets and cash only for the promoters to close shop suddenly at night and disappear into thin air,” the statement added.

HURIWA recalled that there were reports on Wednesday that the PDP zoning committee had recommended that the party should throw its presidential ticket open. The Rights group however warned the PDP that voters will inevitably punish the party since it can't be trusted to keep to her words always.

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