Seven APC Presidential Aspirants reject Governors’ list, back Abdullahi Adamu

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Seven Presidential aspirants under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, have dismissed the names of five presidential aspirants purportedly to President Muhammadu Buhari to select a consensus candidate, stressing that they were not consulted before the Governors arrived at the decision.

The aggrieved aspirants  in a terse statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday shortly after a brief meeting in Abuja described the move as shambolic and an already failed attempt to sideline other aspirants, particularly those from the South-East and South-South.

Describing the move as a joke taken too far, the  Presidential hopefuls disclosed that the move is in total absurdity as against the directive of President Buhari.

The aspirants namely; Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade; former minister for state for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; former Minister for science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, former governor Rochas Okorocha and businessman Tein Jack-Rich in a joint statement issued by Ogbonnaya Onu on their behalf distanced themselves from the purported list.

According to them, the motive of the Governors is in their selfish interest, not the South.

They also clarified that at no time did the President equivocally support zoning of the Presidency to the South, saying that though they were in support of the Presidency to the South especially the Southeast neither them nor other South-East Presidential aspirants were consulted before any or such decision was taken.

Urging Nigerians to disregard the report, Onu stressed that neither the Governors Forum nor Northern Governors had any moral or constitutional jurisdiction to determine the political fate of the South.

The aspirants queried the alleged selection of only one candidate from the South East which had never Produced Nigeria’s President and the picking of three from the South West, a zone that has had 16 years at the Presidency, and the inclusion of the one from the South-South a zone which has also produced a President for six years.

Onu pointed out that the Governors were merely acting based on gratifications being promised to them by a certain Yoruba aspirant from the Southwest, who was also included in the list.

Onu said that five of the  northern governors have been promised the office of Vice President, which has suddenly prompted some of the governors to push for the zoning of the All Progressive Congress presidential ticket to the South

According to him, Governors are paying lip service to their reason for zoning the Presidency to the South based on equity and justice, he said that if truly they meant their words, the Southeast must be the considered first for the Presidency and its aspirants subsequently tabled before Buhari to select from.