2023: Why we won’t support presidential candidates from North—-PANDEF

…Warns there’ll be trouble for Nigeria if North retains power
…I believe in power rotation, says SDP presidential candidate, Adebayo

By News Editor

The Pan Delta Forum, PANDEF, has revealed that it will mobilize electorate against presidential candidates from Northern part of the country ahead of the next year’s general elections.

The group warned that there would be trouble in Nigeria should the North retains presidential power beyond the May 29, 2023 expiration timeline of this present administration led by a Northerner, President Muhammadu Buhari.

The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, who issued the warning during the Forum’s visit on a consultation with the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prince Adewale Adebayo on Tuesday in Abuja, vowed to mobilize every well meaning Nigerian to voice their unjust treatment in the Nigerian state should presidency goes to North in 2023.

The PANDEF spokesperson noted that the position aired by the Forum was not a thread but “We we are serious.”

He added that, “We will mobilize our people in the creeks, in the farmlands, in the streets across Nigeria, and people who think that Nigerians should work together.

According to him, “I had said on a programme on national TV that if the two major political parties produces northern candidates, it will be a declaration of war against Southern Nigeria.

“We are in a situation where an administration has operated in a system as if others don’t exist.

“We are saying it’s unfair, not proper, and it’s on record. We are taking our campaigns to the South South, we have friends in the Middle Belt and in northern Nigeria, to Nigerians of goodwill and clear conscience in northern Nigeria, so that they will know that we need to work together for this country to exist, prosper, and become greater than what we are.

“We will speak to all Nigerians why the next president should come from Southern Nigeria; anything otherwise, we are not saying this as a threat, Nigeria will no longer be what it has been if 2023 presidency goes to the North.

Robinson while emphasizing on depth of injustices meted to the Southern part of the country under the present regime, said, “There are 17 major paramilitary intelligence agencies in the country. At the last count 14 of them are headed by persons from certain part of the country, three from Southern Nigeria.

“The NNPC limited as it is called has 11 key management and board members, the South south has no person, and eighty percent of our resources come from the region, the south east has two, the south west one.

“And in that kind of discriminating administration of eight years; then somebody in that kind of scenario wants to retain power again in the North.”

He said, “We have agreed that after due consultations with the presidential candidates, we will adviser Nigerians on which presidential candidate to vote for.

“This conversations will continue with the South South and the Middle Belt.”

On the issue of Muslim Muslim ticket and whether the group will interface with presidential flag bearer of APC, Bola Tinubu, he said, “You can’t close the door against your own, PANDEF will engage all of them because we’re leaders and fathers.”

In his remarks, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prince Adewole Adebayo said, he plans to promote an indivisible Nigeria, a Nigeria that believes in power rotation.

He said, “My major aim is to promote an indivisible Nigeria. The Niger Delta has been the source of stupendous wealth that has been used to sustain Nigeria.

“I see the Niger Delta as a valuable component of Nigeria. I just don’t see it as an area that produces oil but as humans who happens to be before oil.

“If the injustice in Nigeria is addressed nobody will talk of your geographical location.

“I share their believe on power rotation but from a just man to a just man and not an unjust man from the North to an unjust man from the South.”