PDP agrees to sell presidential nomination form to Jonathan’s opponents

The Peoples Democratic Party has called on any member interested in the party's presidential primary to obtain the nomination forms.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Olisa Metuh,  announced this in a statement in Abuja on Monday.

The statement said, "The Peoples Democratic Party wishes to inform all aspirants to all positions for the 2015 general elections that the deadline for the purchase and collection of all nomination forms has been extended to Thursday, November 6, 2014.

"All aspirants who paid for nomination forms, including the Presidential form but yet to collect same, should come to the PDP National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja with a verifiable evidence of payment for purposes of collection of their forms."

It will be recalled that the PDP had earlier refused to sell the presidential nomination form to two aspirants - Dr. Abdul-Jhalil Tafawa-Balewa and Prof. Akasoba Duke-Abiola, after collecting their N24m.

The two aspirants were told that the party only printed a copy of the presidential form and that it was meant for President Jonathan, who all the caucuses of the party, including the National Executive Council had endorsed the sole presidential candidate.

However, the party was said to have been confused because of the legal implication of its action.

A member of the National Working Committee of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, "We know the legal implication of what we did. It was a mistake on our part to have advertised that the presidential forms are available for sale in the first place. The situation became worse when we have even collected money from aspirants and we refused to sell the forms to them. That's one of the reasons why we changed our mind."

He added that the party was however convinced that none of its governors would breach the agreement they had with the party on the President's endorsement.