By Jubril Bada

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The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described the move by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, leaders to ensure that the former President Goodluck Jonathan dumped the main opposition party for the ruling party as speculation.
It added that the ruling party leaders’ move in keeping an eye on former President Goodluck Jonathan to dump the opposition PDP and pitch tent with the APC won’t materialised.
The Publicity Secretary of the PDP, in Ondo State, Mr. Kennedy Peretei, stated this in an interview with The Hope yesterday.
Though, Peretei described the move by the ruling party as speculation, saying if it is eventually true, it will then be discussed.
“What you just asked me, it is speculation. The PDP will hold its congress to produce its presidential candidate as well as the APC through consensus to produce its candidate.
“Then, if it comes to be former President Jonathan as the APC candidate then we can discuss it as a matter, ” Peretei said.
It would be recalled that since the visit of APC governors led by Yobe State Governor and Chairman of the Caretaker /Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni, on the occasion of Jonathan’s birthday in his Abuja residence in November the polity has been twitching with speculations of his possible defection to the ruling party.
This is especially as the APC has resolved to whittle down the structure of the PDP.
The ruling party has continue to harvest PDP governors, senators, members of the House of Representatives and many other bigwigs into its fold ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Last week, the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, led a delegation of party leaders from the South on a visit to the former president in his Abuja residence.
There were hints that the PDP leaders visited the former president to, among other things, appeal to him not to defect to the APC in view of the current crisis bedevilling the opposition party.
The South is agitating for power shift to the region on the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023, on the grounds that a gentleman pact was reached by APC leaders prior to the 2015 poll that the party would cede its apex ticket to the South after Buhari.
A credible source in the APC who spoke with our correspondent, however, claimed that Jonathan was approached to jump ship to the APC so he could pick the party’s presidential ticket to win the 2023 poll and hand over power to the North in 2027.