Essential Ndubuisi
Former President Goodluck Jonathan may have been deceived by the Aso Rock cabal that he would get the automatic ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress to contest the 2023 presidential election, a presidential source, IgbereTV learnt, informed SaharaReporters on Monday.
The cabal comprising some members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended family and friends are the powers behind the throne.
This group led by Buhari’s nephew, Mallam Mamman Daura is said to have the ear of the President, influence policy-making and determine those who get major appointments.
SaharaReporters had recently reported how Jonathan met with Daura and other cabal members in Abuja where he was promised the automatic ticket of the APC.
He was told during the meeting that President Buhari would anoint him, while other aspirants will step down as it was done during the March 26 national convention of the APC, which produced Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the chairman of the party.
“He was deceived by the cabal and he fell for it, he is a joker. With all the promise, his name didn’t even appear on the list of those to be screened. That also prevented him from attending the PDP’s presidential primary election,” the presidential source said.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, one of Jonathan’s aides confirmed the former President was deceived by the cabal members so he could miss the convention of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said Jonathan had agreed to attend the PDP convention held last Saturday after the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, visited him at his Maitama district residence in Abuja on May 17.
The promise by the cabal and APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu however made him shun the exercise organised by the party, despite having his picture in its convention’s programme booklet.
“I think he (Jonathan) was just deceived intensely to ensure he didn’t attend the PDP presidential primary.
“The APC Chairman told him they had to wait for President Buhari to come back from Malabo. After Buhari returned, they changed the tune and he (Jonathan) was unable to meet Buhari as promised by the chairman and cabal.
“Jonathan also travelled last night and will be back on Wednesday. But the problem now is that we heard Buhari is likely to have travelled by that Wednesday as well. So, the former President is confused, he seems to have trusted the cabal so well.
“You can see that his name is not even on the list that was released last night. The list was released after he left the country. His lawsuit judgement is no longer being considered as well; that was what they used to deceive him initially. This was someone who had assured PDP members that he would be at their convention and they printed his name and picture on their booklet but he didn’t show up, not knowing he was being deceived,” an aide to the former President told SaharaReporters.
A Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Friday ruled that former Jonathan was still eligible to contest in the 2023 presidential election on the grounds that he had only been elected into the office once, in 2011.
The trial judge, Justice Isa Hamma Dashen, in his judgement also held that Jonathan’s right to vie for the office of president again cannot be stopped by any retroactive law.
Daily News Reporters
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