APC screens Tinubu, Amaechi, Umahi, others for presidential primary

The All Progressive Congress (APC) on Monday screened some of its presidential aspirants, including Bola Tinubu, former Lagos state governor;
Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation, Emeka Nwajiuba, former Minister of State for Education and Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state.

Also screened are Ahmed Yerima, former governor of Zamfara; Ibikunle Amosun, former Governor of Ogun state; Uju Kennedy, only female aspirant; Tunde Bakare, Nicholas Felix; Ken Nnamani, former President of the Senate president, Ajayi Borroffice, deputy senate leader and Mohammed Abubakar-Badaru governor of Jigawa State.

The screening which was held behind closed doors at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, is conducted by panel chaired by John Odigie-Oyegun, for APC National Chairman.

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Some of the aspirants who spoke with journalists after the screening expressed satisfaction with the process and hoped for a platable outcome.

One of the aspirants, Bakare expressed confidence that he would emerge victorious at the party’s primary and face Atiku Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate.

“I know he (Atiku) is worthy person who has contributed his quota but if it is PDP they have gone into oblivion and if there is something we can do, it is to ensure that they do not bounce back again.

“For sixteen years they’ve put us back. There are challenges in the past eight years and the best we can do is to improve upon what has been done by the current administration and we will do so.”

In another development, Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy Senate President, accompanied by Hope Uzodinma, governor of Imo state visited the APC National Secretariat, where they held about four hours closed door meeting with Abdullahi Adamu, APC
national chairman.

Though the details of the meeting were not known, it will not be unconnected with reports that Ekweremadu had approached APC to offer him the Enugu state governorship ticket to enable him contest the 2023 gubernatorial election on its platform, having lost the ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Peter Mbah.

Enugu State chapter of APC vowed not to give its ticket to the Enugu West senator, saying he was never part of the party’s primaries in the State, being a PDP member.