Chidi Samuel || Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has responded to governor Okorocha’s announcement on Tuesday that 34 governors are backing President Buhari’s 2019 re-election bid by stating that there will be no automatic ticket for the President in 2019.
Tinubu said that even President Muhammadu Buhari will not support any form of imposition of candidates within the party.
The former governor of Lagos State spoke on Wednesday during an interview with reporters in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
“Buhari will want a normal process; the Buhari that I know. Who says he will lose at any convention?” the APC leader questioned.
He, however, said the APC would not be contravening any law of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if the National Executive Council of the party decided to endorse President Buhari as its sole candidate.
He said, “If the national body of the party, the NEC, and all of us as members, now get together and endorse him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations; we will not be violating our own constitution.
“What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so. Buhari has not excluded anybody, and he has not infringed on anybody’s ambition if there is.”
Although the President is yet to declare whether he would contest or not, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha had earlier said there was no automatic ticket for any candidate of the APC during the general elections.