Spokesperson opens up on Jonathan’s presidential ambition, defection to APC

<p><strong>The spokesperson to former President Goodluck Jonathan&comma; Ikechukwu Eze has debunked rumours that his principal is putting structures in place to contest the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also ruled out the possibility of Jonathan defecting to the All Progressives Congress &lpar;APC&rpar; in order to emerge as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 elections&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The media aide went further to explain that the recent meetings between his boss and President Muhammadu Buhari have no political implication linked with the 2023 presidency or a planned defection to the APC&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Eze made the series of denials as rumours continue to gather and spread about Jonathan’s alleged ambition to succeed Buhari in 2023 amidst clamours for a southern presidency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h1><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;cameroon-separatists-bomb-afcon-stadium-2-days-to-tournament&sol;"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;ff0000&semi;">Cameroon Separatists Bomb AFCON Stadium 2 Days To Tournament<&sol;span><&sol;a><&sol;h1>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;OpenLife&period;ng"><strong>OpenLife<&sol;strong><&sol;a> recalls only recently&comma; a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;Openlife&period;ng">poster emerged online<&sol;a> further fueling speculations that former President Goodluck Jonathan is interested in contesting the 2023 presidency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The poster was tagged &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;GEJ Is Coming Back” and according to details on it&comma; the poster is sponsored by a group identified as the National Agenda For Goodluck Ebele Jonathan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The campaign poster has a picture of Jonathan and signs off with a slogan that says &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;coalition for a better Nigeria 2023&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But when contacted on the issues&comma; Jonathan’s spokesperson&comma; Eze who was initially reluctant to speak on the rumours as he said they have become recurring questions said there is no truth in the speculations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He submitted that Jonathan met Buhari on Thursday to brief the President in his capacity as the special envoy of the Economic Community For West African States &lpar;ECOWAS&rpar; on political developments in Mali&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The media aide also denied a meeting between Jonathan and some political campaign coordinators targeted at working out moves for his 2023 presidential ambition&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Everything they are saying is speculation&comma;” <em>Punch<&sol;em> quoted him to have said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He added&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Defection issue and presidential ambition are all rumours&period; It has no foundation&period; We do not want to be reacting to such &lpar;things&rpar; again&period; We have issued statements on this before&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Former President Jonathan went to the Villa to brief the President on the forthcoming ECOWAS meeting in Ghana&period; The meeting will discuss the political happenings in Mali&period; So&comma; as a special envoy&comma; he was at the Presidential Villa to brief President Buhari&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There are issues in Mali and at the forthcoming meeting&comma; ECOWAS leaders are to look at the transition timetable proposed by the Malian rulers and take a position on it&period; It is also at this meeting that a decision would be taken on whether to sanction the Malian military ruler or not&period; This is the issue that took oga &lpar;Jonathan&rpar; to the villa&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;