APC: Jonathan visit nothing to do with 2023 — Buni

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rubbished reported plots to field former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2023.

A group of northern governors were, according to reports, working towards making Jonathan contest the elections to serve a single term of four years after which power will return to the north.

But Yobe governor and interim APC chairman Mai Mala Buni has debunked the existence of such plans.

“Those peddling such information are afraid,” Buni told BBC Hausa in Kaduna on Wednesday.

“But for now, there is nothing in the APC that has anything to do with the aspiration for 2023.

“Even if someone wants to base his assumption on our recent visit to him (Jonathan) during his birthday, we were there to pay respects to him in his capacity as a former President of Nigeria.

“Again, even if there is nothing, when we are talking of peaceful coexistence, we must give credit to former President Jonathan on the issue of peace, on how he accepted defeat in 2015 and resigned to fate. That has qualified him to be a statesman and he is now among our fathers.

“Our visit to Jonathan was pronounced because of his status as a former president. That could be why some may think there was something beneath.

“There are numerous such visits to leaders of PDP, APC. Why are others not being mentioned but Jonathan?”