We Are Confident Jonathan Won’t Leave Us for APC – PDP
POLITICS DIGEST – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it is confident that former President Goodluck Jonathan will not dump the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
PDP added that Jonathan will remain in the party no matter the amount of pressures piled on him to do so.
Following his disagreement with Seriake Dickson, the outgoing governor of Bayelsa state and the series of meetings he has had with David Lyon, the governor-elect and other APC leaders in the state, there were insinuations that the former president who voluntarily relinquished power to the APC following his defeat in the 2015 general elections may be on his way out of the PDP.
It was also rumoured that key stakeholders of the APC who are trying to make appreciable inroad into the South- South are trying to capitalise on the support given to Lyon by Jonathan and his family during the just concluded November 16 governorship election.
However, speaking with Daily Independent, a member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) who spoke on condition of anonymity said while they are aware of the scheming by the APC to lure the former President into its fold, it is confident that Jonathan will never leave the PDP.
He said the former president took the decision to support Lyon based on “personal reasons owing to the disagreement he had with Governor Dickson and not because of his interest in joining the APC”.
Read Also:
“Yes, we have heard about it too. But we are not sleeping over it at all. We know former President Jonathan as a very loyal party man and one of the pillars of our great party. We are confident he will not join the APC no matter how they try to convince him”.
“ I don’t want to go into details but from what we witnessed in the Bayelsa election, the people are not happy with the candidate anointed by Governor Dickson who was the candidate of the PDP. If that is the decision of Bayelsans, then I think the former president who is a tested democrat will align with that decision, irrespective of where the candidate the people wants comes from”.
Also speaking with our correspondent on whether the PDP has taken any action against Jonathan over his role in the party’s loss during the Bayelsa governorship election, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity Secretary said he is not aware any letter was written by the party to the former President.
Ologbondiyan, who said there is no case concerning Jonathan at the national level said as a member of the Bayelsa state chapter of the party, if the former president had committed any wrongdoing, it is the state chapter of the party that will bring the report to the national level for action.
That, according to him has not been done as at Monday.
“ I will have to ask the National Secretary if that was done because I am not the one that will write the letter. We are concerned about the loss of our party”.
“Right now, there is no issue before us concerning the former President. The PDP is procedural. We work with procedures. If there were issues in a particular state, the state chapter will have to bring the issue before the national body before any action can be taken. That is the procedure”, he said.
.){kind=link}