Seven presidential aspirants contesting under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have said they are not privy to the decision of the party’s governors that reduced the aspirants to five.
Recall that the governors purportedly submitted five names to President Muhammadu Buhari to select a consensus candidate.
However, the seven aspirants expressed their opposition to the development, stating that nobody reached out to them before the Governors arrived at the decision.
The aggrieved aspirants position was contained in a terse statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday.
The aspirants include Governor of Cross River, Ben Ayade; Ex-Minister for state for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; Ex-Minister for science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; former governor Rochas Okorocha and businessman Tein Jack-Rich.
The aspirants said President Buhari did not equivocally support zoning the presidency to the South and questioned the motive of the governors.
“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,” the statement read in part.
Onu added, “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.
“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.”
The names submitted to Buhari are said to include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State.
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