PDP Primaries: Dankwambo will not defect – campaign org.

The Presidential Campaign Organisation of Gov. Ibrahim Dankwambo says the governor will remain in People’s Democratic Party (PDP) irrespective of the outcome of the party’s primary.

Prof. Terhemba Shija, the Director-General of the campaign organisation, gave the assurance in an interview with our reporter in Abuja on Wednesday.

He was reacting to speculations that Dankwambo may soon dump the PDP after the presidential primary and seek another platform to actualise his presidential ambition.

Shija said that Dankwambo had consolidated his position in the PDP having distinguished himself as the only state governor who refused to defect before and after 2015 elections in the entire 19 northern states.

He said that the presidential aspirant would accept whatever the outcome of the PDP’s presidential primary and work with whoever emerged as the party’s flag bearer in his determination to re-position Nigeria’s economy.

“Luckily, Gov. Dankwambo himself has said it repeatedly that he is a team player. He said that he is a PDP man who was brought up and groomed by the PDP.

“He said that the party is a pool where leaders are grown and that he is one of them.

“So, nothing will make him walk out of PDP just as he did not walk out of PDP when every other person was running away.

“Don’t forget that people ran away before and after 2015, they said all sorts of things against the party. But Dankwambo stood his ground.

“Many people chickened out because of the Tsunami that APC unleashed on the country. Despite this, our principal stood his ground and fought them to a standstill both in his state and the entire North/East.

“Mind you, he was the only PDP governor who retained his position and eventually returned for a second term as a governor.

“Today, he is one of the most senior in the fold of the PDP governors. He has been resilient and consistent.

“I cannot see him running away from PDP because leaders and delegates at the presidential primary election will prefer somebody like him. Such politicians do not jump around over personal ambition or interests judging from his antecedents.

“At the end of the primaries, let me assure you that he is ready to stay back in PDP and work with whoever eventually emerges.

“But it may not even come to that because the leaders and delegates know that we will win the primary and we will fly the flag of the party’’ he said.

He said that Dankwambo would help deploy his years of professional experience as a financial expert to salvage the country from economic challenges.

He appealed to other aspirants in PDP to demonstrate the same spirit of sportsmanship in the primary elections slated for later this year.