President Jonathan says he is confident that PDP will win the Osun State election.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday said that the Peoples Democratic Party would certainly win the August 9 governorship election in the State as well as win in the other South-West states in the 2015 elections. 

He said from the sight of the crowd of PDP supporters who welcomed the party in Oshogbo, it is convinced the party will clinch the governorship seat. 

He also said it had become expedient for the zone to return to the ruling PDP in order to shed the toga of opposition which he said the zone had been known for in the past. Already, the PDP had won the June 21 election in Ekiti State. 

The Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on Political Matters, Prof. Ahmed Alkali, told journalists in Abuja on Monday that the PDP remained the party to beat in the zone, given the response of the electorate lately, according to reports from The Punch. Alkali said, “It was glaring as everybody could see that the crowd of PDP supporters who welcomed PDP in Osogbo was awesome. 

“If I had doubts before now, like any other person based on propaganda, I am now more rest assured that Osun State is as good as returning to the PDP after the governorship election”. Alkali’s postulation formed part of Jonathan’s strategists’ plan to return the President for second term next year.

It was gathered in Abuja that the President and his strategists believed that Jonathan needed the votes of the South-West to realise his second term ambition. A governor, who is a member of the think-tank of the President said the Presidency believed that it was wrong for the people of the zone to work against the second term ambition of Jonathan. 

The governor said, “We need to capture the zone because it is strategic for us in 2015. As I speak with you, we are not sure of the votes from the North-West and North-East at all. “You also know that both the North-West and the South-West have the largest number of voters out of the six zones in the country. “So, the two staggered governorship elections in both Ekiti and Osun states is giving us an opportunity to gain some grounds and we are not going to play with it.”