Confusion continues to trail the selection of the All Progressive Congress (APC) presidential aspirants on Tuesday, as seven of the aspirants rejects the names of five presidential aspirants purportedly sent President Muhammadu Buhari, as consensus candidate.
The aspirants including Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade; former Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; former Minister for Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, former governor Rochas Okorocha and Tein Jack-Rich, a businessman, predicated their position on the fact that they were left out of the selection process, that threw up the nominees.
The aggrieved aspirants, in statement issued after their meeting in Abuja, on Tuesday, described it as “shambolic” adding that the attempt to sideline them have “failed”
The aspirants held that the party leadership remains the only organ that can take decisions on the issue and appealed to all stakeholders to support the Adamu-led executive.
“In the past few hours we have been bombarded with calls and messages from my supporters and concerned Nigerians on a list of five Presidential aspirants submitted to President Buhari to choose from.
“As long as we are concerned no list has been submitted to Mr. President, the move by the Governors is considered a joke taken to the extreme with the aim of playing with the intellect of Nigerians particularly us from the South-East.
“Mr President’s directive is very simple, that all Presidential aspirants including those from the North should meet and harmonise inorder to produce a single candidate. As it stands we have not been consulted or attended a meeting where it was agreed that such names be sent to Mr President.
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“In the so-called list out of the five names only one was selected from the South-East and we are talking about fairness and justice to the South. What the Governors have done is a mere picnic in the park. These are the same Governors talking about Equity, justice and fairness yet in a clandestine manner purportedly sidelined the South East.
“In the absence of any harmonised agreement no list has been submitted to Mr. President, what they have done is just nothing but a charade which is bound to fail.
“We also have it on good authority that the majority of these Governors have been promised and also given various forms of gratifications in order to thwart the process in favour of one aspirant and such grand plot will fail woefully.
“Moreso, the party led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu remains the official organ of the party through which decisions taken by stakeholders in the party will be communicated and acted upon, in the absence of that any other move remains null and void.
“We urge all well meaning Nigerians to disregard such information, as we remain in the race hence no consensus agreement has been reached amongst all contestants.
“The names, according to the source, included that of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State), Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation, and Governor Dave Umahi (Ebonyi State).
“The governors after meeting with the President said they will return to the villa after meeting with the party’s National Working Committee(NWC) and other stakeholders.
“They picked one from South-East, one from South-South and three from South-West geopolitical zones in line with their position that power should shift to the South,” he said.
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