2027: No presidential candidate can match PDP’s Jonathan, Turaki boasts

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Interim National Working Committee (INWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has declared that none of the presidential candidates of the other political parties in the country can stand shoulder to shoulder with its candidate and former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan in the forthcoming election.

The National Chairman of the INWC, Dr Tanimu Turaki (SAN), said this on Wednesday during a meeting with its party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and other stakeholders ahead of the 2027 elections as well as the presentation of certificates of returns to candidates who emerged victorious at the party recent primaries.

This is even as Turaki assured that the party will contest election in every constituency where election will be held in 2027 in the country and win.

According to him, “Today, I doubt if there’s any presidential candidate of any political party, and I dare say including the All Progressives Congress, that can stand shoulder to shoulder with our own candidate.

‘So, wherever you go, whenever you find yourselves in the midst of people, whether they are our friends on the other side or not, raise your shoulders very high because PDP will set the pace”, he said.

Continuing, he said, “And that is why today we can beat our chest to say that PDP will contest election in every constituency where election will be held in 2027. And it’s not just about contesting, it’s about contesting to win.

“That is why we sat down carefully, methodically, and we sat down again and then examined each and every one of the individuals that had presented themselves for election as candidates under the platform of our party.

“We’ve done background checks and we are still doing background checks on some of the people that had even emerged because PDP would not want a situation where, for any reason, that we win election and then that victory will be taken out from us at the tribunal.

“For our gubernatorial candidates, we’ve gone beyond that. We’ve made sure that we’re also doing security checks on them.

“I assure you that it’s only PDP that is doing this in this country. And we are doing this because for us in PDP, the next set of leaders must be ones that are beyond reproach. “They must be clean, they must be leaders that are honest, they must be leaders that are credible.

They must be leaders that have necessary capacity to deliver democratic dividends to their people because that is vintage PDP and we’re going back to what we’ve always been known for, service delivery, service to the people through handing over power to the people.

“And that was what we’ve done in the series of exercises that we’ve carried out in producing not only our governorship candidates, but even our candidates to the National Assembly, our candidates to the state houses of assemblies, and indeed our presidential candidate”, he said.

Among those presented with Certificates of Return were;

Lawal Mohammed Umar (Kaduna), Hassan Oladimeji Ali (Kwara), Zanna Gadama Mustapha (Borno), Ibeabuchi Ihenechukwu (Abia), Effiong Eyamba (Cross River), Sheriff Abdullahi (Yobe), Donatus Nwogbo (Enugu), Eze Alexander (Ebonyi), Etenabene Benedict (Delta), Taofeek Arapaja (Oyo), Caleb Maigbadani (Adamawa), Mohammed Ahmed Yayari (Gombe), Victor Richard (Rivers), Senator Joel Danlami Ikenya (Taraba), Ibrahim Abdullahi (Kebbi), Mohammed Ja’afaru (Nasarawa), Oladipupo Adebisi (Ogun), Mohammed Kabir (Kano), Emmanuel Agbo (Benue), Adetokumbo Pierce (Lagos) and Sunday Garba (Plateau).