PDP defends Jonathan on alleged S’West marginalisation

JULY 8, 2013  

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe

The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party said on Sunday that President Goodluck Jonathan had not maginalised the people of South-West in his administration.

It said with  the successful commencement of the reconstruction and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, it would be wrong for the people of the zone to say the President was maginalising them in his administration.

It will be recalled that the leadership of the PDP in the South-West had met with Jonathan and complained about the non-appointment of people from the zone to strategic positions in the government.

Their complaint attracted the attention of the Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, who said the President was looking into the matter.

He also promised that President Jonathan would soon address their grievances, though blaming the leaders of the opposition in the zone for allegedly colluding with some PDP members in the House of Representatives to deny the zone the position of the Speaker, which he said was zoned to the South-West.

But the PDP, in a statement by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tony Okeke, on Sunday said the commencement of the reconstruction of the expressway had shown that the zone was not marginalised by the Jonathan administration.

Okeke said the project also “put the lie” to insinuations of marginalisation against the South-West by the Jonathan administration.

Okeke said, “PDP-led government has in the last two years embarked on several other strategic road projects in the region including the repair of the Third Mainland Bridge, rehabilitation of Benin-Ore-Shagamu highway, rehabilitation and reconstruction of Ijebu-Ajegunle-Araromi-Ife-Sekona Road in Ogun state, reconstruction of Ibadan-Ilorin road among others.

“This is in addition to so many other infrastructural projects executed in the region.”

He  lambasted opposition Action Congress of Nigeria governors in the zone for not being personally present at the commencement of the project which he said was meant to transform the lives of Nigerians and boost economic and social activities in the South-West states in particular and the nation at large.

He, however, commended Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State for personally attending the event and accused the other ACN governors of staying away for parochial political reasons.