Amidst attempt by loyalists of former president Goodluck Jonathan to stop him from running on the All Progressives Congress ticket, the former president, has formally met with the National Chairman of the ruling party in Abuja, apparently to clarify some grey areas regarding his candidacy.
Former President Jonathan, who was reported to have rejected a N100 million nomination form procured for him by some Fulani pastoralists, later met behind closed doors in Adamu’s house.
A source close to the former president said that the meeting, whose details were not made public, lasted between 9pm and 10 pm in a bid to sort out some grey issues regarding Jonathan’s bid to fly the party’s presidential flag in next year’s poll.
It was learnt that the confusion that trailed the purchase of the form for Jonathan arose because of the spirited efforts by his core loyalists in the People Democratic Party, PDP, to dissuade him from joining the APC and running on its platform, saying that such would be detrimental to opposition party and belittling of his image.
According to a reliable source, the former president had concluded plans to accept the nomination form and meet with the APC leadership since Sunday morning but was strongly prevailed upon by those seen as his ‘inner caucus friends’ to shelve the move and remain in the PDP even without being active in the party.
“These people have been pressurizing Jonathan until the very last minute not to accept to run on the APC ticket no matter how tempting the conditions may be. That was why the former president did not present himself to the APC National chairman on Sunday when the form was to be formally presented to him by the Almajiri who want to show him appreciation for what he did for them during his tenure by building schools and rehabilitating them,â€
