The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday said it had not taken a decision on the zone that will produce its presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, during a media briefing in Abuja, also called for the immediate and unconditional release the PDP’s Head of Security in the Dekina Local Government Area, Kogi State, Mr Edeh Abutu.
Abutu and six others were arrested on Saturday by policemen said to be from Abuja.
The PDP said the party had yet to discuss the 2023 presidential election, adding that reports suggesting that it was planning to retain the zoning of its presidential slot in the North-East and South-East, were merely speculative.
Ologbondiyan said, “For the avoidance of doubt, our party is yet to discuss the 2023 presidential election, overtly or covertly, at any time whatsoever.
“If anything, the PDP is currently working with Nigerians on how to win its elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states and will not be distracted by individuals who found themselves operating in the highest offices of the land but failing in governance.”
He stated that the PDP governors were not divided along any lines of ambition towards 2023, adding that there was no plot to stop the ambition of any of the PDP members.
On Abutu, Ologbondiyan alleged that he was abducted by the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, also the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the November 16 governorship election, on trumped-up charges.
He said, “Only on Saturday, the APC, using some hoodlums and compromised security agents, led by Bello’s illegitimate deputy governor, Edward Onoja, arrested the PDP head of security in the Dekina Local Government Area, Mr Edeh Abutu, on trumped-up charges of possession of firearm.”
He urged security agencies not to allow themselves to be entangled with the APC against the people as such will diminish the trust, respect and confidence that people had for them.
