Veteran journalist and politician, Dele Momodu, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of succumbing to what he described as “cheap and puerile blackmail” orchestrated by internal saboteurs who, despite being in the opposition, are openly and daringly working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Momodu’s comments come in reaction to the PDP’s announcement to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, a resolution reached during the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Abuja on Monday.

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had announced that NEC approved the recommendations of the party’s zoning committee after extensive deliberations.

According to the communique issued, the current zoning arrangement for the National Working Committee (NWC) positions will remain in place for the upcoming national convention in November, where a new NWC is expected to be elected.

“That having retained the position of the national chairman in the northern region of the country, the presidential candidate of the party for the 2027 general election is hereby zoned to the southern region. That the regions should immediately micro-zone positions within its region for implementation,” Ologunagba said.

Reacting to this, Momodu, a former PDP presidential aspirant, claimed that the zoning resolution was engineered to benefit President Bola Tinubu, alleging a behind-the-scenes alliance between former Rivers State Governor and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and the presidency.

Momodu added that no Jupiter will stop Wike from using PDP structures for Tinubu, noting that “that’s already a done deal.”

“The shame of it was seeing the so-called seasoned politicians engage in self-adulation for taking the most reckless decision in the history of our nascent democracy, by zoning the 2027 Presidential candidacy to Southern Nigeria. The deliberate pretence was sheer bunkum. Who did not know that ultimately the hand was that of Wike while the voice was that of Tinubu. Their game plan is not hidden,” Momodu wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

“Wike keeps belching orders at helpless Governors who are too jittery to stand firm against daredevil dictatorship. They could not even rescue one of their prominent members in Rivers State, SIM Fubara, when his boat of governance capsized. The same man that threw out zoning in 2022, and even lobbied to be Vice President of a Northern candidate, is the one now crying loudest that power must be ceded to the South in 2027.

“The geniuses should be courageous enough to admit that Tinubu will be the joint candidate of APC and PDP in 2027. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Give it to Wike, love him or loathe him, you will always know where he stands, no matter how preposterous and ludicrous. No Jupiter will stop Wike from using PDP structures for Tinubu. That’s already a done deal. Let PDP stop deceiving Nigerians that it will field a Southern candidate against Tinubu.”

The Ovation Magazine publisher also dismissed widespread speculation that prominent Southern figures like former President Goodluck Jonathan, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, or Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde might receive the PDP’s 2027 presidential ticket, calling such claims “blatant lies from the pit of hell.”

Momodu also criticized what he described as “hypocrisy” within the party, stating the lack of a Northern replacement following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the lack of opposition to Tinubu’s controversial Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023.

“What is more, the hypocrisy behind the reason for zoning power to the South stinks to high heavens. Where were these guys when President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died and no one fought for his replacement from the North after Jonathan completed their first term? In fact, Jonathan would have spent 9 years as President but for his defeat by Buhari in 2015. Where were they when Tinubu ran on a Muslim/Muslim ticket? The questions can continue ad infinitum!! TRUTH must not be selective.”

PDP, which governed Nigeria from 1999, has struggled to redefine itself in the opposition and maintain internal cohesion and national relevance since its loss of federal power to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 and has now been faced with many factional disputes, leadership tussles, controversial power rotation between the North and South, and shifting allegiances.

In the lead-up to the 2023 general elections, the PDP faced internal resistance after it abandoned the zoning arrangement, allowing a Northern candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to emerge as its flagbearer.

That decision alienated many Southern party members, including then-Rivers State Governor, Wike, who had vied for the presidential ticket and later became a vocal critic of the party’s leadership.

Wike’s eventual appointment as FCT minister by President Tinubu and his continued influence within the PDP, despite holding a federal position in an APC-led administration, have fueled suspicions of cross-party collaboration.