The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) raked in N480 million on sale of presidential forms for its presidential primary ahead of the 2023 general election as at Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

The purchase of presidential expression of interest and nomination forms by the Akwa Ibom State governor, Udom Emmanuel; a business man from Bornu State, Muhammad Hayatudeen, and Immediate Past President of PSN, Sam Ohuabunwa on Wednesday increased the number of the aspirants to 12.

Before Wednesday, Nine aspirants had purchased the presidential forms. They include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Presidents of the Senate, Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Anyim Pius Anyim; Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed; Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal; Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers; Dele Momodu, Oliver Diana Teriela and Nwachukwu Anakwenze. With these 12 aspirants, the PDP has generated the sum of N480 million since the sale of presidential expression of interest and nomination forms were declared open.

Although, he has declared interest to run for the president, the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, is yet to pick his nomination and expression of interest forms.

Addressing newsmen after picking the presidential form, Hayatudeen, who said that the security situation in the country required that all hands must be on deck, added that “this is a national emergency and understanding and dealing with this issue is not exclusive preserve of the Armed Forces or the military.

“The entire society needs to be brought in, declare a national emergency, bring in all the stakeholders, the youths, traditional rulers, academia, specialists in security, retired and military brass, police, intelligence, because this one people who live among us.

It is important to craft a lasting solution for dealing with this issue. “Extraordinary time calls for extraordinary solutions, we need to build up the size of the military, retrain and rearm them, provide them with the motivational tools that they need so that they can fight this battle successfully.”

On zoning, Hayatudeen said it does not matter who gets the presidency but who can fix the country and clear the mess, adding, “Zoning is a matter of convenience for certain leaders and for parties to discuss and agree among themselves, it is not an imposition that everyone is bound to abide by.

“As far as I am concerned, the issues that face these country are real, are deep and profound. Muhammad Hayatudeen does not care who governs this country”.

Also speaking with newsmen after purchasing the presidential form, Sam Ohuabunwa lamented that “our country is now languishing in the throes of chronic retrogression and decay in all indices of nationhood.

“Unprecedented insecurity stalks the land and citizens’ lives are at the daily mercy of all manner of criminals across the country.

Our economy gets more downgraded and distressed, with falling naira value, hyperinflation, disinvestment, industrial unrest and endless borrowings as some of the symptoms.

“The first thing I’m going to do is to call the people together and ask, how did we get here guys? We will sit at a table like this and decide what we need to do to solve our problems, that’s the primary thing and that is the major thing.

The solution is to apply high level of technology to security surveillance. “With technology, you can see anybody where he’s located. With technology, you can hear, you can see with technology, we don’t even need to send physical force, we can send technologically driven forces and modern drones to get them where they are.

If you have intelligence, you can hear and see. We’ll know what these people are planning before they get out with their plans, we will arrest them.

“I think that we need to rejig our security architecture and we need to be sure that we motivate those who fight for us.”

Addressing newsmen shortly after picking the presidential form for Udom Emmanuel, the Brekete Family group said that what they witnessed since independence is not something to write home about.

Speaking on behalf of the group, while explaining the reason behind their action, Innocent Orji said, “Today is a new dawn in our country Nigeria because for the very first time in the history of Nigeria, this is the only time a group of people globally came together and said, change must take place come 2023.

“The ordinary president. Dr. Ahmed Isa, and the founder of Brekete Family Radio and television came and said it to the world that change may start come 2023.

“The reason behind all this is because what we witnessed since independence is not something to write home about. Hence, the change will start with us this time around.”

He said that the Brekete family globally will purchase 10 nominees, that’s presidential forms.

“Each person that wants to participate must have outstanding antecedents and we must purchase the form; that is the only way we can get the best to say enough of all this and you must give account of your stewardship. We are starting from this particular person today.

That’s why we purchased one today for the person of Dr. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State. This is just the starting point.

“When he came to human rights radio and television for the programme, Brekete, he came on his own and he presented all he has done with in the time, his short time in the state, you people can testify to that, we don’t believe until we’ll see. “So we decided to do proper investigation on our own.

We traveled to Akwa Ibom and saw everything that he said, and we even discovered that there are many he didn’t mention.

As a result of that, we are of the opinion that if he can do that, in his own state, we have the opinion that he will do even better in Nigeria as a whole.”