From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Imo state ,Chief Chris Oguoma has said that zoning the party’s presidential ticket to south east will make the party retain power at the federal level beyond 2023 .
He pointed out that 35 percent of the voters in Lagos state are Igbos and that it is the same in all the Southwest , South – South and northern states as the Igbos constitute the second largest ethnic groups after the indigenous people anywhere in the country .
Oguoma , a former Imo state chairman of party maintained that for equity, fairness and justice that the presidential ticket of the party should be micro zoned to the southeast since it has been zoned to the south.
” The only way the APC would retain the presidency beyond 2023 is by zoning its presidential ticket to the southeast because both the south west and the south south had already produced the president of the nation and it is only the south east that hasn’t produce the president .
He added, ” If it is zoned to  the south east Igbos across the nation will vote massively for the president. Remember that in 2003 when the late Dim Odumegwu  Ojukwu contested the  presidential election on the platform of APGA he garner about 9 million votes and these votes did not come from south east a lone but from Igbos across the country . Also , don’t forget that 35 percent of the votes in Lagos belongs  Igbos,  this is the same in the all south west states, even in  Kano , Kaduna , Abuja and all the major cities in Nigeria because the Igbos are everywhere in Nigeria and in fact constitute the second largest ethnic group after the indigenous people .
For instance in  Ondo state Igbos voted massively for  Rotimi Akeredolu because he is our in- law and he won the governorship election for his first tenure and second tenure and  that is just an example of  what Igbos can do if given the presidential ticket of the party”.
The Imo APC chieftain therefore called on the  National leadership and stakeholders of the party to do the needful by ensuring that justice is done to the south east as that would further galvanize the people to back the party in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.