LAGOS MAY 1ST (URHOBOTODAY)-President Goodluck Jonathan has, for the first time, questioned the results of the March 28 presidential election, maintaining that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still the dominant party in Nigeria.
Jonathan had congratulated Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), before the final result was announced but he said on Thursday that he only did it for the unity of Nigeria.
He said the PDP could not have recorded the low scores recorded for him in some areas.
The president was speaking at the submission of the report of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation (PPCO) at the new banquet hall of the presidential villa.
Jonathan said: “PDP is still the dominant party. If you look at the result, the difference is just over two million votes. And if you look at the areas where it is perceived that PDP scored so low, PDP couldn’t have gotten those kinds of scores.”
He said now that the elections are over, “I put the country first”.
In another development, President Goodluck Jonathan has advised that the administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari should not consider scrapping the Presidential Amnesty programme for ex-militants in the Niger Delta region.
The Presidency cautioned that any attempt to cancel the amnesty programme would lead to crisis in the region.
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, gave the warning while speaking with journalists shortly after a meeting to review activities of the programme in Abuja.
According to Kuku, the Amnesty Programme is a moral and not a political programme.
“The presidential amnesty has transformed and still transforming lives. This is the reason why we are meeting today, reviewing the programme vis-a-vis that fact that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan our brother, the president of this country would be going back home after successfully running a four year term, having lost in the last presidential election.”
“He would be going back home. So, apprehensions are everywhere, worries are everywhere, what will happen to the presidential amnesty programme. The leaders are asking questions, the followers are asking questions.”
“So I keep interfacing. I keep talking; we keep putting our heads together. Today again, we put our heads together and I have assured them on behalf of Mr. President and even on behalf of the incoming government of which I am not going to be a part of. But I know the government will be decent. I know what decent government do all over the world.”