JUST IN: Emergence of northern president may spark crisis –PANDEF

The Pan-Niger Delta Forum has warned against the emergence of another Northern president in the 2023 election.

According to the group, having a northern president could lead to a war situation between the Northern and Southern parts of the country.

The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Ken Robinson, gave this warning during a consultative meeting with Prince Adewale Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party Presidential Candidate on Tuesday night at his residence in Abuja

He stated that PANDEF would mobilise people from the creeks, and streets across the country to protest should 2023 election produce a Northern president.

He said, “The statement is not a threat and we are serious. We will mobilise our people in the creeks, in the farmlands, in the streets across Nigeria, and people who think that Nigerians should work together.

I had said on a programme on national TV that if the two major political parties produce 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, we are taking it 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 goes to the north”.

He also accused this regime of lopsided appointments, citing it as another reason power should not return to the northern part of the country in 2023.

Robinson said,  “There are 17 major paramilitary intelligence agencies in the country. At the last count, 14 of them are headed by persons from certain parts 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 80 per cent 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”.