Jonathan predicts PDP defectors will return with empty stomachs

President Goodluck Jonathan says those defecting from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will return with empty stomachs.

He said this today while receiving the report of the Jonathan/Sambo Presidential Campaign from the PDP presidential campaign council headed by Senator Ahmadu Ali.

“Those who are cross-carpeting will come back with empty stomachs. Before the food gets to you, the food will have gone,” he said.

Jonathan said despite his defeat at the March 28 presidential election, the PDP remained the dominant party in Nigeria.

He expressed optimism that the PDP would bounce back, asking members to unite and work harder so that the party would come back stronger in the next general elections.

The president also asked his PDP members not to judge the party by the outcome of the presidential election.

He expressed doubt over the outcome of the 2015 general elections, saying the PDP could not have scored so low as recorded in some areas which he did not name.

“But the election is over,” the president stated.

According to him, “that we lost the election is a minor thing for now. The key thing is that Nigeria, as a nation, must move forward.”

Jonathan also noted that political parties could only thrive when there is peace and stability in the country.

Presidential political adviser Rufai Alkali earlier said in his remarks that PDP leaders and members wept over Jonathan’s defeat.

PDP Board of Trustees Chairman Tony Anenih said the party lost to betrayals and conspiracies.

He urged party members to work to build a strong opposition in the country.

Anenih said if Jonathan had not conceded defeat, only God knows “where we might have been today.”

Ali, in his remarks, said Jonathan though it was sad that Jonathan lost the election, he (the president) averted a civil war by conceding defeat.

He urged the president to peruse the report of the campaign council to get “a road map for moving forward.”