Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, has officially thrown his hat into the ring for the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the 2019 presidential election.
The governor declared his intention via a tweet on his Twitter handle on Saturday.
With Dankwanbo’s declaration, PDP now officially has four aspirants that have declared their intention. Others are Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, Ahmed Makarfi, a former governor of Kaduna State, Taminu Turaki, a former minister, Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, and Sule Lamido, a former governor of Jigawa State.
It is expected that fresh returnees to the party, Senate President Bukola Saraki and Governor Aminu Tambuwal may also declare their intention any moment from now.
The governor, in the tweet, said he decided to run for the presidency after wide consultations with party members and with Nigerians of diverse backgrounds.
“After wide consultations with party members & Nigerians of diverse backgrounds! I, Dr Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo will be running for office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of our great party, the People’s Democratic Party”, he tweeted.
He also defended his decision to contest on the PDP platform, saying although people tried to discourage him, he had survived all the fears they raised.
“Most people told us in 2015 that it was suicidal to stay in PDP because of the wind of change in the North. For those of us in the North East, they said we will not survive the hurricane, but with the support of our people, we did”, he said.