Abuja/Benin — National chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Bamanga Tukur yesterday declined to speak on the controversial claim by Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu that President Jonathan had entered into an agreement with PDP governors to serve for only a single term.

Bamanga who was accosted on arrival at the Benin Airport on a visit said he would not want to be dragged into such an issue which he described as unnecessary.

Governor Babangida Aliyu who chairs the Northern Governors Forum claimed that President Goodluck Jonathan entered into an agreement with governors on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party to serve for a term. Aliyu, made the claim during an interview with a Kaduna-based radio station, Liberty FM on Saturday morning which was later uploaded on an online news portal, Sahara Reporters.

In the interview, the Governor reportedly said it was on the basis of the agreement that he and some of his colleagues in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party supported the President in the 2011 presidential election.

"What will be, will be in 2015. We must remind people of the promises they have made. When he (Jonathan) was going to declare, governors of PDP were brought together to ensure that we were all in the same frame of mind. Some of us, given the PDP zoning, were expecting that the northern states would produce the President for this number of years but God has done His own.

"At that discussion, it was agreed that President Jonathan would serve one term and we all signed and when he went to Kampala, he said the same thing. But for now, President Jonathan has not declared his candidacy and we must not be speculating based on who those are benefiting from such a thing. I believe that we are all gentlemen enough and when the time comes, we will all sit down and see what the right thing to do is.

Bamanga who was in Benin to visit the Deputy National Chairman South South of the PDP Steve Oru who is being treated at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital [UBTH] for gunshot wounds he sustained in the hands of armed robbers last week, however, said the merger of opposition political parties under the aegis of All Progressive Congress [APC] does not in any way pose any threat because "they will gather and scatter' while the PDP will continue to wax stronger."