By our reporter| The ruling All Congress Party (APC) has begun the accreditation of and registration of delegates for today’s presidential primary election.
The event, which is holding at the Eagle Square in Abuja will see 2,340 delegates queuing to choose their preferred presidential candidate.
In the lead-up to the exercise, 28 presidential hopefuls had picked the nomination and expression of interest forms, but five of them later pulled out.
Twenty-three aspirants later appeared before the APC presidential screening committee led by the party’s former chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.
The run-up to the special convention, which is billed to run till Wednesday, had been marred by intrigues over the zoning of the presidential ticket and consensus candidacy.
The chairman of APC, Abdulkadir Adamu on Friday announced Senate president Ahmed Lawan as the ruling party’s consensus candidate, a move that was swiftly rejected by 13 northern governors elected on the party’s platform and NCW who insisted that the south should be allowed to produce the presidential flagbearer.
The governors went ahead to recomend that one of the following – Bola Tinubu, vice president Yemi Osinbajo, Femi Fayemi, Rotimi Amaechi, and Dave Umahi be adopted as the party’s consensus candidate.
But five presidential candidates not included in the list rejected the five “frontline candidates” recommended by governors.
In a statement issued after a meeting on Tuesday, the seven governorship hopefuls –
Ben Ayade, Emeka Nwajiuba, Ogbonnaya Onu, Rochas Okorocha, and Tein Jack-Rich described the decision as a “joke”.
“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,” the statement issued by Onu on behalf of his colleagues reads.
“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 in order 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.
“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 to thwart the process in favour of one aspirant and such grand plot will fail woefully.
“More so, 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.”
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