LEKWOT'S GROUP, SAMBO'S AIDE DIFFER OVER SOUTHERN KADUNA'S WOES

ALLEGING marginalisation against Southern Kaduna in the state, erstwhile Governor of Rivers State and Chairman of Southern Kaduna Elders Consultative Forum, Maj.-Gen. Zamani Lekwot (rtd), has blamed Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo for the ugly trend.

Speaking on behalf of the Forum, Lekwot urged Sambo to redress the injustices meted to the people in the state.

But the Vice President, speaking through his media aide, Alhaji Umar Sani, said as long as the state government has not lodged any official complaint about the alleged marginalisation, the Vice President was not going to respond to group or individual's claims.

Specifically, the Vice President was accused of going against the zoning principles of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by allegedly influencing the choice of Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha from the northern part of the state to fill the position of the PDP's National Organising Secretary in the party's forthcoming elections, instead of a candidate from the Southern Kaduna.

According to a petition made available to journalists in Kaduna, Lekwot had paid a courtesy visit to the Vice President in Abuja on December 16, 2011 where he protested as 'having been seriously short-changed in federal appointments and projects', since Namadi became the Vice President.

In the petition said to have been sent to the Presidency, Lekwot backed his argument with the last presidential election figures, saying, 'Zone 1 which had only 16 per cent of the votes cast have 50 per cent of all the appointments, while Zone 2 which had 33 per cent of the votes cast has 33 per cent of appointments.'

However, Sani argued: 'Is the state government complaining or what? We are yet to get an official complaint from the state governor or Kaduna State government. We cannot be replying every group or individual on every allegation. There is no problem between the Vice President and anyone or group in Kaduna State.'