PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s office on Tuesday denied claims and allegations that the president has endorsed the beginning of campaign for 2015 elections.
This is according to a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati.
Specifically, Abati refuted a front page news report that a 21-member committee had been set up for Jonathan’s Second Term Bid.
“This is totally untrue and without any basis in reality.
“As he has truthfully declared on several occasions, President Jonathan has not yet taken a decision on whether or not he will seek re-election in 2015.
“He has, therefore, not mandated any individual, committee or organisation to start working on his behalf for the 2015 elections.’’
Abati said the president’s stated wish to be left alone to focus on delivering on his promise of good governance and national transformation without unnecessary distractions should be respected.
“Political jobbers and their collaborators in the media should stop heating up the polity with baseless speculations and falsehoods revolving around imaginary plans and schemes by the Presidency for the 2015 elections,” he said.
Abati said the Presidency had also observed an emerging trend whereby political opportunists were using the president’s name to promote themselves and their ambitions.
He said some unscrupulous persons were printing 2015 campaign posters with President Jonathan’s photograph when INEC had yet to announce the beginning of campaigns.
The special adviser cited an advertorial suggesting that the president had endorsed a particular candidate for Anambra gubernatorial election.
“For the benefit of the unwary, the Presidency emphatically states that President Jonathan has not endorsed any candidate for any position whatsoever ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“The President has neither commissioned persons to start campaigns for his own candidature,” he said.
Abati warned all 2015 political office seekers, and their sponsors, friends or collaborators, to desist from “unconscionable exploitation of the president’s name in the service antics of self-aggrandisement, promotion and positioning’’.