The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) says it has not invited former President Goodluck Jonathan to run for president on its platform in the 2027 election.
Ibrahim Abdullahi, deputy spokesperson of the country’s biggest opposition party, told BBC Hausa that no ticket had been provided to the former president.
Abdullahi stated that PDP has many qualified candidates for the presidency on its platform, and that a recent interview he gave was understood to suggest that Jonathan requested to run on the PDP platform.
He said:
“The report that PDP has issued its presidential ticket to former President Goodluck Jonathan or invited him to contest the 2027 presidential election is not true.”
“What happened is this, I had an interview with a journalist where we discussed some issues.
“But in the course of the interview, he mentioned President Jonathan, asking about our opinion of him, because there are reports that he is being urged to run for the presidency.
“I responded by saying that he (Jonathan) is eligible to contest the election, because he is a Nigerian and has the right to do that by the provision of the law, and he still has one more term left.
“So, there is nothing wrong about him contesting the presidential election because he is eligible in the face of the law.”
The deputy spokesperson stated that the ticket would be handed to someone who has expressed interest in running for president.
Jonathan, as a member of the PDP, lost the presidential election to former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.