Sambo ‘still part of the winning team’, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party says Vice President Namadi Sambo is still a “part of the winning team” ahead of the 2015 presidential election.

A presidential aide told TheCable on Sunday that “various interests in the north” were pressuring President Goodluck Jonathan into dropping Sambo as his running mate for the 2015 presidential election, but said the president had no such intention.

However, on Monday, PDP alleged that a section of the media was trying to impute a rift between the president and his vice, ahead of the election.

It expressed satisfaction with the working relationship between the president and his deputy, affirming that “Sambo was part of the winning team.”

National publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh, released a statement to restate “the confidence of the party in a winning team that has demonstrably transformed Nigeria in less than four years despite challenges”.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that the vice president has the implicit confidence of the president. The PDP is, therefore, very pleased that they are working together in actualising the transformation agenda to the popular acclaim of both Nigerians and the international community,” the party said.

“We wish to place on record as well that the 66th NEC meeting of our great party, which endorsed President Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP for the 2015 general election, responsibly reasoned and anchored this decision on the outstanding performance of the Jonathan Presidency of which Vice President Sambo is an integral part of.

“This motion, which was unanimously endorsed by NEC, left no room for any form of speculation as Sen. Jim Nwobodo who seconded it expressly commended both the president and his vice for lifting the banner of the PDP very high while praying the NEC to approve the
motion.”

It added that the statement was to clarify “obvious misinterpretation” arising from its position at the world press conference on Sunday, where it stated that the president was yet to accept the sole presidential candidature offered by PDP’s NEC.