As rumours of former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, continue to make wave, leaders of the main opposition party, Tuesday, spoke on the development.
Jonathan, who was elected president of Nigeria in the 2011 election but lost to Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, has not been active in the affairs of the party in recent times. Although, he attended the party’s non-elective convention in 2017 and the presidential convention in 2018 in Port Harcourt, he has not been actively involved in the activities of the PDP in the past few years.
With his campaign posters that had been pasted in designated places in the Federal Capital Territory; Jonathan is said to be on the verge of joining hands with APC after he was credited with an interest in the office of the president, should President Muhammadu Buhari endorses him.
Debo Ologunagba, PDP’s spokesman, explained that the party would in no way respond to speculations and rumours on whether the former President will defect or not.
“We are not going to say anything for now. As far as we know, the former President has not defected. He has not said he would defect. Until he defects, the PDP won’t react because we don’t treat rumours or insinuations. We deal with facts,” he explained.
Speaking on behalf of his principal, Nathaniel Ikyur, Chief Press Secretary to the Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, said that “politics is all about interest,” noting that should Jonathan go ahead to defect to the ruling party, “I will still not make a comment.”
On his part, former governor of Kaduna State, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi allegedly came short of saying that political choices are freely decided by people at one time or the other, go right or left.
“It is his (Jonathan’s) life,” Makarfi said in his brief response; an indication that should the ex-president make the move, the party will move on.
After repeated efforts to make him respond, former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose revealed that it was impossible for him to confirm or deny the possibility of Jonathan’s imminent defection to APC because in his words, “I am not in his mind.”
On her part, Tari Iberia Oliver, the only female presidential aspirant of the PDP, expressed great doubt about Jonathan dumping PDP for APC.
Having been a member of the PDP for 19 years, the presidential hopeful claimed that the PDP would not get unnecessarily discomfited over what has been reported of Jonathan because “the man has not said he is leaving.”
She continued: “I don’t want to believe this will happen. So, let’s not talk about this because at the end, the rumour is likely to just disappear the same way it came. Don’t forget, we are in the era of politics and a lot get thrown up that are not true.”