JUST IN: APC Aspirants Reduced to Osinbajo And Four Others

JUST IN: APC Aspirants Reduced to Osinbajo And Four Others

Ahead of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) convention and presidential primary today, in Abuja, stakeholders in the party, including the progressive governors, on Monday, reduced the number of aspirants to five in order to properly manage the voting exercise.

From the 23 cleared by the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun Screening Committee to contest the presidential primary, the top five in the race now are the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo; former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu; Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; former Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi; Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi and the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who made it six.

However, not satisfied with the number still in the race, President Muhammadu Buhari, after meeting with governors of the party at a meeting, which started last night and dragged till the early hours of today, directed the governors to further reduce the names to two or three, so it would be a straight fight between those shortlisted to contest.

Although it’s nothing close to the United States Super Tuesday, when the greatest number of US states – about 14 of them – hold primary elections and caucuses, where approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating conventions could be won, today’s presidential primary of the ruling APC, is a coincidence, which unfortunately, has birthed more crises than the party leadership had envisaged.

Earlier on Monday, Onyxnewsng reported that the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdulahi Adamu, had endorsed Lawan, unsettled the convention atmosphere, a development, which first precipitated a meeting of the northern governors of the party with President Buhari.

The president, who immediately issued an official statement to end the tension, however, made public his stand on the choice of a presidential candidate for the APC, saying he had no preference amongst the 23 presidential aspirants. He also wrote a letter to the delegates partaking in today’s presidential primary election, and pleaded with them to exercise their rights without allowing any form of inducements or manipulations.

The APC governors had left a meeting at the party secretariat and headed to another one with the president, armed with five names from the southern presidential aspirants as part of their resolution, in addition to Lawan, a northern aspirant, who has refused to stand down, making the total number of those set for final showdown today six.

Going through the list, the president directed, albeit in form of advice, that the list should be reduced to two or three, preferably two so it would be a straight fight between the two at the convention today.

But seeing that the governors seemed uncomfortable with the advice, the president then said if they found it difficult to further prune down the list from the ones shared with him, then, they should let everyone go for an election today.

BREAKING: Crisis Hit APC As National Chairman Adamu Announces Lawan As A Consensus Candidate

The APC governors are billed to meet again this morning to wrap up their consultations, take a decision and also issue a statement to that effect, after they might have pruned down the list to a manageable number.

Angry Adamu, had avoided a meeting with the governors, where the issues were meant to be looked at collectively and resolve the matter.