Abuja – The APC Northern governors and the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have insisted that the presidential candidate of the party should come from the South.
While 14 Northern governors on Monday insisted on power shift to the South during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC NWC expressed support for the position of the governors through the National Organising Secretary of the party, Alhaji Suleiman Argungu.
In their addresses to Buhari during the meeting, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, said they had come to affirm the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.
They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.
The insistence of the governors and other members of the APC NWC was coming in spite of an earlier announcement of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan as the consensus aspirant by the APC National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu.
Adamu made the announcement Monday afternoon at the NWC meeting of the party held in Abuja.
Also addressing a press conference on Monday evening at the APC headquarters in Abuja, the party’s National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu who was flanked by other members of the NWC said the reports that Lawan had been adopted as consensus aspirant were fake and baseless.
Argungu said the governors from the North and South have all agreed that there should be a power shift to the South, adding that the NWC cannot do otherwise.
The party’s special convention where 2, 340 delegates would elect the party’s candidate is slated for June 7.
Argungu, insisted that the choice of Lawan was Adamu’s personal opinion and not that of other mbers of NEC.
He said the NWC was in support of the position of Northern APC governors on power shift to the South.
“It is just an information given by the chairman. The NWC is with the Northern Governors on power shift to the South,” Argungun said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also distanced himself from the choice of a consensus aspirant.
Buhari in a statement made available by one of his media aides, Garba Sheu said he would not impose presidential candidate in the party.
Buhari, according to Sheu made his position clear during a meeting with 14 Northern APC governors on Monday afternoon in Abuja.
“I have anointed no one, there shall be no imposition.
“You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain.
“We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, Monday afternoon cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, declaring before the party’s 14 governors of Northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.
“President Buhari said the party is important and its members must be respected, and made to feel they are important,” Sheu quoted Buhari as saying during the Monday meeting with 14 Northern governors. (vitalnews)
