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President Goodluck
Jonathan never contacted the former chairman of DAAR Communications,
owners of the African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower Radio,
Raymond Dokpesi, to head his campaign organisation, the Goodluck/Sambo
Presidential Campaign Organisation, said yesterday in Abuja.

The organisation
was reacting to Mr. Dokpesi’s media interview at the weekend in which
he denied he said he was being roped into the October 1 bomb attacks
because of his refusal to head Mr. Jonathan’s team.

Mr. Dokpesi, who is
the director general of Ibrahim Babangida Campaign Organisation, was
quizzed last week by the State Security Service (SSS) over his alleged
involvement in the incident. He is believed to be reporting daily to
the security organisation.

But in a statement
yesterday, titled ‘Disclaimer: Dokpesi was never under consideration’,
the president’s campaign handlers said Mr. Dokpesi was never approached
for the job.

“The attention of
the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization has been drawn to
certain utterances by the Director General of the Babangida Campaign
Organization, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, to the effect that he was
suffering an imagined political persecution because he declined to head
our campaign organisation.

“Nothing could be
farther from the truth. At no time was Chief Dokpesi considered for
such a role. He never made it to anybody’s short list or long list,”
the statement, signed by Sully Abu, its spokesperson, said.

The organisation
said Mr. Dokpesi’s claim defies political common sense “as such
position is normally given to someone outside the geographical zoneof
the aspirant. Dokpesi, being from the South South, as is President
Jonathan, could never have been considered for such a position.”

Campaign tour

Meanwhile, the
organisation, led by its director general, Dalhatu Tafida, will today
arrive in Sokoto in the north west geo-political zone, to begin a
nationwide “meet-the-stakeholders” tour.