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A strong opposition in the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta state has formed against an alleged scheme to zone leadership of Delta state chapter of APC to Delta North, saying that it is an unholy plot to alter the governorship zoning arrangement in favour of another senatorial district.

Mr. Emmanuel Nduka Ogwuda, an APC chieftain in Asaba in a press statement declared that the ill-conceived agenda will strangle the rapily booming popularity of APC in the State and eventually kill the party as a widely accepted alternative platform in Delta state.

While calling on the good people of Anioma nation to close ranks and begin to build consensus ahead of the 2019 general elections, Ogwuda said the call had become necessary as new political platforms and agitations have emerged, seeking to alter political understanding hitherto established by leaders of thought to foster peaceful co-existence, mutual development and ethnic harmony in the heterogeneous but diversely rich state.

He declared: “We have taken notice of ominous plots by some desperate politicians to scuttle the political zoning arrangement for the governorship position, which was established since 1999. When the current democratic dispensation took off, Delta Central District was endorsed and massively supported to produce the governor. Then Delta South took turn before it came to Delta North, which incumbency persists.”

Ogwuda observed that Delta State is standing on a tripod, pointing out that an understanding of zoning the governorship position must remain sacrosanct and should be respected by all political parties, pressure groups and lobby platforms.

“As far as committed members of the APC are concerned, the Governorship position is non-negotiable, and our party the APC should work in this popular direction to deliver a candidate of APC from Anioma extraction,” he stated, and declared: “I am therefore vehemently opposed to the rumoured plot to zone the leadership of Delta State chapter of APC to Delta North in the forthcoming party congress, with the plan to alter the governorship zoing arrangement in favour of another senatorial district.”

Ogwuda urged Delta state APC to be wary of mercantile politicians in the party, who are fanning the embers of disunity, division and discord, arguing that the ill-conceived agenda will  strangle the party and destroy fast booming popularity of the party in the state, and ultimately kill it as a widely accepted alternative platform in the state.

He disclosed that he was working with serious minded and committed members of APC to produce a credible, widely accepted and winsome candidate that will sweep the 2019 governorship polls in Delta State that will bring about the desired change and transformation of the immensely endowed state, “which has been under the yoke of bad and corrupt government since 1999, which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) exemplified.”

He warned that any attempt to produce an APC governorship candidate outside Delta North (Anioma nation) will amount to an exercise that is doomed to fail, even as he described the scheme as a fifth columnist plot being hatched to kill the popularity of the APC brand in Anioma Nation in particular and Delta State in general.

Ogwuda who passed a vote of confidence on the present leadership of Delta State APC, also called on all APC members to support them with the prevailing zoning formula in the state.