Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Pastor Reno Omokri, on Friday dismissed claims that his former principal will soon defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Speculations have been rife ahead of the 2023 presidential election that Jonathan, who had served on the PDP platform successively as Deputy Governor, Governor, Deputy President and President will before 2022, join the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.
In fact, overtures had been made to him from the ruling party in view of the popular clamour for power shift to the South at the completion of the tenure of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari in 2003..
The alleged permutation is that since Jonathan is entitled to only one term of four years again as President to complete his constitutional eight year tenure truncated by Buhari’s election, he is being wooed by APC chieftains especially from the Northern section of the country to hold power and return it back to the North again at the end of four years.
But Omokri said flatly that Jonathan would not defect.
Reacting to a question on what he would do if Jonathan decamps to APC, the number one best-selling author, said: “I am not Femi Fani-Kayode. I urge you, your radio station, and the general Nigerian public not to be emotionally agitated.
“Don’t be excitable. Be rational. Put things into proper perspective. Study my past. Am I or am I not a stable person? You and the public should be able to gauge my future conduct from my past conduct. Let me make this clear: Former President Jonathan will not join the APC.
“And even if he does, I will NOT go with him. But he won’t. Fani-Kayode’s behaviour is not representative of my behaviour. My late father was an Appeal Court Justice. Investigate him. He was known for being a honest judge. I was a Presidential spokesman for four years.
“Nobody has even accused me of stealing a pin. Betrayal, groveling and instability are not in my DNA. So what will make me vulnerable to APC? My pedigree is too important to me to soil.
“I must pass it unblemished to my children as it was passed on, unblemished, to me. My stomach does not control my mouth. What I say, and how I behave, are dictated by conscience, not by appetite”.
With additional report from Vanguard News Nigeria
