Convention: Chair aspirants yet to disclose position on consensus – APC

Abdullahi Sule, Governor of Nasarawa State and chairman of the media and publicity sub-committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Convention, said aspirants for the office of the party’s National Chairman are yet to make their position on the proposed consensus arrangement.

Sule accompanied by Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, co-chairman and Garba Shehu, senior assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Secretary of the Sub-committee said this while briefing journalists on the updates for this Saturday’s Convention of the party in Abuja on Thursday.

President Muhamadu Buhari had Wednesday night met with APC Governors and the party’s chairman aspirants at the Presidential Villa where he requested for a consensus arrangement for the seat and showed preference for the former Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Adamu.

While the Governors through the chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) and Kebbi State Governor, Atiku Bagudu agreed with Buhari’s proposal when he spoke with journalists in the State House, it is not clear chairmanship aspirants have conceded to the request.

Read also: APC convention: Buhari, APC Governors reach consensus on chairmanship candidate

Seven chairmanship aspirants; Saliu Mustapha, Sani Musa, Tanko Al-Makura, Abdullahi Adamu, George Akume, Abdulaziz Yari and Mohammed Etsu have already been screened for the race.

The Media and Publicity Sub-committee Chairman while responding to questions from journalists stated that: “You said most of the aspirants have already agreed to the consensus request yesterday; they have not made it public to us yet”.

He said every true member and stakeholder in APC have enormous respect for the leader of the party, Buhari and his request for a consensus Chairman would be granted as it will be in the interest of the party.

Sule said: “We strongly believe that he will not do something just for selfish reasons, for greed or for anything that will be against the interest of the party. He is interested in ensuring the unity of the party. So he’s not doing anything for his personal benefit.

“That is the kind of leader we have. That is why each time he speaks everyone listens because they know he is not doing it for any personal benefit. That is his request and I am telling you his request will be honoured because we know he is doing it sincerely for the benefit of the party.”

The Nasarawa State Governor also confirmed the President’s appeal for the refund of the N20 million used for the purchase of nomination forms to aspirants that would step down for a consensus candidate.

“He said once we agreed on the consensus, it is only fair that what they pay be returned back to them. It was a request actually made by Mr President to the leadership of the party and the leadership was there. So, I will say that the leadership of the party also agreed,” Sule stated.

On the expected delegates for the Convention, he said:” The total number of delegates will actually be determined by the party. We are in charge of media and publicity. You know there are so many committees, we are just one so we don’t want to start going into the role of another Committee by saying this is the number of delegates.”