Former President Goodluck Jonathan has debunked news reports linking the G-5 governors and their ‘fight’ with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to him.
The former president said in a statement that the G-5 governors are not loyal to him as insinuated by some media reports.
In the statement signed by Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan’s media aide, it said the erstwhile president has no hand in the crisis within the PDP. The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to news media and social media reports linking former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s name to the current troubles in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with a false claim that the aggrieved PDP governors are demonstrating their loyalty to him.
“We would have ignored the strange tale since it is obviously baseless. However, we are offering this clarification because we have been reached by many Nigerians who are concerned that such fabrication with a vague and suspicious attribution could be given undeserved prominence on the front page of some national dailies. We are also not unmindful of the fact that this being an electioneering season, bizarre tales are often contrived, propagated and weaponised to either smear others or deliver cheap political advantage to the purveyors.
“First, we would like to make the point that it is not out of place if there were crises in a political party like the PDP and a former President who served under the party platform is called upon to intervene. That being the case, we initially did not see anything wrong with the headlines in some papers, indicating that the former President was being persuaded to help resolve the issues in the party. However, we are dismayed that the seemingly purpose-minded headlines were only cast to mask the mischief of the sponsors of the story and hoodwink the unsuspecting populace.”
The G-5 governors including Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu and Samuel Ortom of Benue had drawn the battle line between them and Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the party.
