President Goodluck Jonathan

Barring any change in plan, President Goodluck Jonathan will on Wednesday pick his presidential nomination form at the Peoples Democratic Party national secretariat, Abuja.

Our correspondent learnt that the leadership of the party had been informed of this and that words had been sent to all members of the National Working Committee to be present on that day.

President Jonathan is expected to present to the party a bank draft of N22m as payment for the nomination form.

He is expected to be accompanied to the party secretariat by some governors of the party, ministers and aides.

The National Executive Committee of the party and other caucuses of the party had endorsed the President as the sole candidate of the party for the 2015 presidential election.

Attempt by a group, the Niger Delta Youth for Jonathan, to buy the form for the President was frustrated by the party.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the group, Benjamin Egbunike, said the group’s demand to buy a bank draft was also turned down by a bank(name withheld).

Meanwhile, the deal the PDP had with its governorship aspirants in Adamawa State might have crumbled as the Governor of the state, Mr. James Ngilari, had picked the nomination form.

The form was said to have been picked on his behalf by two of his aides in Abuja.

Ngilari, a former deputy governor of the state, was not among those that bought form few months ago and the party asked them to step down till 2015.

The party had promised those that stepped down then that they would be the ones to contest its primary in the state this November.

But a court ruling, which nullified his resignation as the deputy governor to the impeached Governor of the state, Murtala Nyako, was said to have cancelled all agreements in the state.

Before the court ruling, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and seven other governorship aspirants agreed to step down after a meeting at the Presidential Villa before the party had its governorship primary that produced Umaru Fintiri as the PDP candidate.

Those who attended the meeting included the PDP National Vice Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, and the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, Rufai Alkali.

Also at the meeting were two governors, Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe) and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi).

Apart from Ribadu, others that stepped down after the discussions at the meeting included Auwal Tukur; Aliyu Idi Hong, Andrawus Sawa; James Barka; Gen. Aliyu Kama; Markus Gundiri; and Abubakar Girei.

Those who took part in the primary were Jerry Kumdisi, Ahmed Gulak, Buba Marwa, Dr. Umaru Ardo, Ahmed Modibbo and Fintiri.

With the buying of the nomination form, it was not clear if the PDP would allow Ngilari to join these governorship aspirants to vie for the party’s sole ticket in November.

Meanwhile, a former Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Terhemen Tarzoor, has said that there are only two aspirants in the Benue State governorship election. These, he said, was all the other aspirants and himself.