2023: Northern gov paid for Jonathan’s APC forms
Indications are that a northern state governor elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) paid for the nomination and expression of interest forms for former President Goodluck Jonathan, Daily Trust reports.
On Monday, a northern coalition called Nomadic Pastoralists and the Almajiri Communities led by one Ibrahim Abdullahi picked up the forms for the former President, claiming his group paid for them.
On Monday night after the news went viral online, Jonathan’s media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, said the former president did not authorise the purchase of the forms but thanked the donors for their concern.
He also said Mr Jonathan was not in the presidential race of the ruling party.
However, a serving northern governor was said to have credited the APC Collection account domiciled with Heritage Bank, with N100 million.
The bank had also in a letter dated May 9, 2022, told the APC that it received the amount.
The letter was titled, ‘Notification of credit into account: All Progressives Congress (APC) Collections Account: 5600007616’.
Daily Trust had reported how two influential governors from the northern part of the country are plotting a return bid for Jonathan.
Multiple sources, who are in the know, said the two governors, close to President Muhammadu Buhari, have secured the buy-in of a section of the presidency to actualise their agenda of drafting the former president into the presidential race.
While one of the governors is from the North West, the other is from the North-East geopolitical zone, Daily Trust said in a report.
The two governors have been playing key roles in the affairs of the APC in the last few years.
In the last seven years, the former president has not been attending activities of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was elected president in 2011.
This is just as his romance with President Buhari and top shots of the ruling party takes the center stage, a development that has pitched him against opposition leaders in the country.
[DAILY TRUST]