FORMER Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu have rejected the purported adoption of Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate.
The APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, had during the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja announced Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate for the election.
However, in a statement issued last night by the Director, Legal Directorate for the Asiwaju Tinubu Campaign Organization, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), the team described the adoption of a consensus candidate at this time as impossible.
It argued that such declaration of a consensus candidate with just 24 hours to the exercise was premature and a violation of extant provisions of the law.
The statement read: “The media is inundated with reports that the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has unilaterally announced the purported adoption of a certain candidate as the consensus presidential candidate of the APC for the presidential election in 2023.
“While the National Chairman is yet to deny or offer any clarification on the alleged declaration, it is necessary to state that such a declaration is a legal impossibility. This is because the under the regime of the Electoral Act 2022, consensus, though provided for as one of the means by which a political party may produce its candidate, must specifically occur in a precise form.”
“However, we are confident that as a law-abiding entity, the APC will not be part of such. We are further persuaded to urge our supporters to disregard this report considering that the overwhelming majority of the APC Northern Governors who, after meeting with the President, re-affirmed their preference for a president from the Southern part of Nigeria.
“This patriotic decision is widely accepted by all Nigerians as a demonstration of deep understanding of the nuanced fault lines of our nation.
“In this circumstance, a unilateral declaration by the National Chairman of a consensus presidential candidate for the party will not only violate the law, but set the party on a collision course with its Governors who are critical stakeholders in the party.”
Meanwhile, Akeredolu described the move as a huge joke.
In a statement issued last night, Akeredolu stressed that the development was contrary to the agreement reached by governors from the North on the zoning of APC presidential ticket to the Southern part of the country.
He added that Adamu had made public his preferred APC presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
The statement read: “My attention has just been drawn to the expensive joke purportedly enacted by the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. The speculation is rife that the chairman took a flight of fancy and decided to make a pronouncement beyond his competence.
“He has, allegedly, made public his preferred choice as the candidate of the APC for the Office of the President in the next general elections.
“This alleged pronouncement runs contrary to the position of the majority of Northern Governors in APC and their counterparts in the South. Our agreement is unanimous on this issue. The office of the President should be contested for by qualified persons from the Southern part of the country if the move to get a consensus candidate fails. There has been no shift from this settled issue.
“Let it be known that the Chairman or anyone who holds a contrary opinion does so at a personal level. He is at best embarking on a frolic which reasonable people will consider dangerous.
“We are grieving but have not forgotten that Power MUST shift to the south. On this we stand.”
