The founder of the O’odua Peoples Congress, OPC, Frederick Fasheun, on Sunday said that President Goodluck Jonathan had a constitutional right to run for a second term in office.
Mr. Fasheun said that the Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly, SNPA, only recently acknowledged the right of Mr. Jonathan to seek two terms in office, as provided for in the constitution.
Controversy had trailed the third conference of the SNPA held on May 20 at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.
The leaders at the conference had been accused of unanimously endorsing Mr. Jonathan for the 2015 presidential polls.
“The Forum only acknowledged that the President has the constitutional rights to contest in 2015,” Mr. Fasheun said. “The SNPA was attended by credible leaders of Southern Nigeria. These leaders cannot but say the truth about the constitutional rights of the President. However, Nigerians also have a right to decide either to vote for him or not, but we cannot deny him his right.”
Mr. Fasheun said that the issue of the president running in 2015 was a matter of the right granted to all Nigerian citizens by the constitution.
On the issue of zoning, Mr. Fasheun, who is also the Interim National Chairman for the resuscitation of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, said that the party had not taken a position on that.
The UPN was founded by the late Obafemi Awolowo in 1978.
He said that though he personally disapproved of zoning, the UPN does not have an official position on it as yet.