2023: Amid Uncertainties of Membership Status, Jonathan Set to Submit APC Form
- As it stands, the political party membership of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan is currently uncertain
- It is also not clear whether he will be contesting for the presidency in the forthcoming election in 2023
- However, Jonathan's supporters are oozing confidence that the Bayelsa-born politician will contest despite publicly declining the APC presidential form purchased for him
The supporters of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan have expressed confidence that the former leader will submit the APC nomination and expression forms purchased on his behalf despite publicly declining to collect the forms.
The Fulani group who gathered the sum of N100million to purchase the nomination forms for Jonathan said this on Thursday, May 12.
Source: Twitter
As gathered by Legit.ng, Jonathan is still yet to publicly state his stance on whether he will be making a U-turn from his earlier decision to decline the nomination forms.
Similarly, his membership status in APC is still relatively sketchy as there is no official statement confirming his membership in the ruling party.
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Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the APC ward chairman in Ogbia (ward 13) in Bayelsa state, Igori Freeman confirmed that Jonathan is a registered member of the party.
Contrastingly, the Bayelsa state chairman of the ruling party, Dennis Otiotio, when asked about the membership status of the former president stated that Jonathan was not a member of the party.
Otiotio disclosed that the ex-President will only be a member of the party on the premise that gets a waiver by the national chairman of the party, Adamu Abdullahi.
He said:
“I think the person you people should be asking the question is the national chairman of the party. He should be the one to grant him (Jonathan) a waiver."
2023: CBN boss, Emefiele unwilling to resign
In another development, reports also have it that the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, is on the brink of going ahead with his presidential ambition despite facing criticism from various quarters.
According to his legal counsel, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) disclosed that Emefiele would only resign 30 days before the presidential polls.
However, this is contrary to the directive issued by President Muhammadu Buhari who instructed all his cabinet members with respect to the stipulation of the newly signed Electoral Act of 2022.
The likes of Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba (minister of state education), Godswill Akpabio (minister for Niger Delta Affairs), and Ogbonnaya Onu (minister for science and tech) have all tendered their resignation.
However, the heated argument and controversy on the lips of people is the refusal of the CBN resigning from his office.
In reaction to the criticism, his legal counsel has stated that the law does not recognize Emefiele as a political appointee as the stipulations of the Electoral Act was specific about political appoitees.
In his defense, his legal counsel stated that his client will only vacate his office based on moral grounds meaning only him or President Muhammadu Buhari can evict him.
He said:
“Whether he (Emefiele) goes or not is his own decision, he has told me to take up the legal aspect for him, that if he wants to go at all, he is entitled to stay in office 30 days to the general election.
“But it is now left for him to go even before the case is decided or after. But at least the law would have decided.
“Yes, it (resignation) is left for him but not because of legal requirements. If he wants to go, it will be on moral grounds, not because the law says he must go now."
Jonathan has dumped PDP for APC, says President Buhari's aide
In another related development, President Muhammadu Buhari's personal assistant on new media, Bashir Ahmad, claimed ex-President Jonathan has dumped the opposition PDP for the ruling APC.
Ahmad said this in a tweet sighted by Legit.ng on Monday night, May 9.
He tweeted:
"So Goodluck Jonathan has dumped the opposition PDP and now member of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)."
Source: Legit.ng
