The decision of the party to zone the presidency to the North was necessitated to compete with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) whose candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, is the incumbent president.

However, a source at a secret meeting held in Lapai town, the country home of the former Niger State Governor, Abudulkhadir Kure, revealed to ThisDay that the eastern part of the country would be given the ticket in view of the loyalty and support of the zone for the PDP in the series of elections so far held in the country.   

“We are going to give the vice-presidential ticket to the East, the east has been very loyal to the PDP. It is going to be a payback time and assurance that they will get the presidential ticket in 2024,” the source said.

A member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Ambassador Wali Jibril, who spoke with journalists before the wedding fatiha of Kure’s daughter, confirmed that the presidency has been zoned to the North for the 2019 presidential election.