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The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has lashed out at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing the party’s relationship with the South East as a nightmare marked by serial injustice. The group is now calling on PDP leaders in the region to explore political realignment ahead of the 2027 general election, insisting that “Ndigbo have no future in the PDP.”

In a strongly worded statement titled “PDP Has Used and Dumped the South East: Time to Dump the Party”, issued on Monday by its President-General, Comrade Goodluck Ibem, COSEYL accused the PDP of disrespect and betrayal since the party’s inception.

“We note with deep sadness that a party co-founded by one of the likes of the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme has continued to disrespect, use, and dump the South East region without regrets and redresses since the Jos 1998 Convention, when Ekwueme was thrown under the bus in the presidential primary election for the 1999 election,” Ibem stated.

COSEYL recounted that despite Ekwueme’s loss at the Jos convention, the South East gave the PDP and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo overwhelming support: “For the record, despite Ekwueme’s fate at the Jos convention, the South East gave PDP and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo 3.2 million votes, representing 78 percent of votes they cast in the 1999 presidential poll. In 2003, PDP got 4.5 million votes from the region towards Obasanjo’s re-election, the presence of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, a revered Igbo hero on the ballot notwithstanding.”

The group further highlighted the region’s steadfast loyalty: “The South East voted massively again for PDP/Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 even when Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, was Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate. PDP and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan got 4,985,246 in the South East in 2011 as opposed to 76,228 votes secured by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) despite Atiku running with Senator Ben Obi as vice presidential candidate.”

COSEYL lamented that despite this loyalty, the region got little in return. “Even when several other traditionally PDP states worked against the party in favour of the APC in 2015, Dr. Jonathan’s votes in the region were so massive as against Buhari’s abysmal performance that the former President punished the region mercilessly for eight years. The region was denied an opportunity to even head a paramilitary agency like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, while he chose a rail line project to Niger Republic over the rehabilitation of the Eastern Rail Corridor to benefit the South East,” the group recounted.

The group said PDP’s current predicament is a case of “Nemesis Pro-Max” for the injustice done to the South East. They noted that despite the 2015 Post-Election Review Committee chaired by Chief Ike Ekweremadu recommending the zoning of the 2019 presidential ticket to the North as a corrective step, the party failed to do right by the South East.

“The PDP failed a moral test by refusing to zone the ticket to the South East in 2023 or take necessary steps to do things right with the region ahead of 2027,” COSEYL stated.

“Let’s make no mistake about it: PDP’s woes of today is karma at work, given the injustice ingrained in their failure to zone the 2023 presidential ticket to the South East region. This bad fate forced the likes of Mr. Peter Obi and Engr. Dave Umahi out of the party and resulted in the electoral loss in the last general election.”

COSEYL concluded by urging South East PDP leaders to leave the party: “Therefore, let no one be fooled; the South East has no future in the ungrateful and unjust party. It is high time South East PDP leaders took pragmatic steps to opt out of a party that has no regards for the region and chart a fresh political trajectory and realignment for the dignity, political redemption, and development of the region.”

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