The Interim National Working Committee (INWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has said it nominated former President Goodluck Jonathan as its candidate in the 2027 presidential election despite all odds.
The National Organising Secretary (NOS) Theophilus Daka Shan, who spoke at the presentation of certificate of return ceremony to gubernatorial candidates of the party in Abuja on Wednesday, said there were efforts to stop the party from nominating Jonathan as its presidential candidate.
“We have a presidential candidate who bought the forms, who signed them. And we nominated him. All efforts to stop us from nominating (him failed), we did nominate him,” he stated.
Shan said the faction has candidates for other positions, disclosing that the party is fielding 28 gubernatorial candidates in the states where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be conducting governorship election in 2027.
“We have 109 denatorial candidates. We have 993 House Assembly candidates. We have 360 House Representative candidates.
“So I will tell you that we are ready to go into the elections prepared with our candidates,” the NOS added.
The National Chairman, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, boasted that no presidential candidate of any political party, including the All Progressives Congress (APC) could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the party’s candidate.
Turaki said the party will contest in every constituency where the election will be held in 2027.
According to him, PDP is not just contesting, but it is contesting to win.
He disclosed that the party has done background checks of all candidates who emerged on its platform “because PDP would not want a situation where, for any reason, we win the election, and then that victory will be taken out from us at the tribunal.”
The National Chairman said additional security checks were conducted on the gubernatorial candidates, noting that the certificates of return of candidates who were cleared last Tuesday were not engraved like others because of the delay in getting them cleared.
“There are still others, a very small number, that are yet to be cleared. Issues have been raised.
“They are not very serious issues of concern, but yet they are issues that we consider very significant, and those issues have to be cleared,” the National Chairman stated.
Turaki added that Nigerian leaders should be beyond reproach, adding, “they must be clean, they must be honest leaders, they must be credible leaders.
“They must be leaders who have the necessary capacity to deliver democracy dividend to their people because that is vintage PDP and we’re going back to what we’ve always been known for – service delivery, service to the people through handing over power to the people.”
The National Chairman said the party will compel the candidates to sign an undertaking that they will not defect from the party after winning the election.
“What had happened before will not happen again. Moving forward, nobody will take our mandate to another political party and get away with it. So the condition of submitting your names to INEC, you will have to sign an undertaking with us,” Turaki said.
