Jonathan denies signing agreement to serve for a single term

President Goodluck Jonathan has denied agreeing to run for only a single term expiring 2015, a day after Niger state governor, Babangida Aliyu, warned that the president will breach terms he reached with the governors should he seek re-election.

In a reaction Sunday, Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, dismissed as ‘frivolous allegation” the claim that the president signed an agreement to the effect that he quits in 2015.

“The alleged agreement only exists in the figment of the imagination of somebody with presidential ambition,” Mr. Gulak said, referring to Mr. Aliyu’s ambition to succeed Mr. Jonathan in 2015.

“Anybody who has a presidential ambition, it is such a person’s constitutional right to have ambition.”

Mr. Aliyu, spoke in Kaduna state where he featured on Guest of the Week on Liberty Radio (91.7).

“I recall that at the time he was going to declare for the 2011 election, all the PDP Governors were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind,” the governor said.

“And I recall that some of us said given the circumstances of the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua and given the PDP zoning arrangement, it was expected that the North was to produce the President for a given number of years.

“I recall that at that discussion, it was agreed that Jonathan would serve only one term of four years and we all signed the agreement. Even when Jonathan went to Kampala, in Uganda, he also said he was going to serve a single term.”

He however noted that the president had yet to declare whether he would be standing for fresh term or not.

But Mr. Gulak denied categorically there was ever such an agreement.

“President Goodluck Jonathan did not win the presidential election in Governor Aliyu’s state, Niger,” Mr. Gulak said.

“He should however go about his ambition without coming up with frivolous allegations. President Jonathan did not sign such an agreement with anybody to the best of my knowledge.”

Culled from Premium Times

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Posted by Online Editor 11 on Feb 17 2013. Filed under AFRICA, ANNOUNCEMENT, FOR THE RECORDS, From The Press, Front Page Story, NEWS, News Across Nigeria, POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry