In a bid to get a presidential candidate under a consensus arrangement, the serving governors of the All Progressive Congress (APC), have reduced the aspirants that will participate in the special convention of the party today to just five.
At the beginning, 23 aspirants signified intention and bought nomination form. 13 aspirants emerged at APC Screening Committee led by John Odigie Oyegun.
The favoured five at the time of filing this report are the leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, ex-Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, Governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and his Ebonyi counterpart, Dave Umahi.
Plateau State Governor and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Simon Lalong revealed this today during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, saying the APC is looking at the possibility of a consensus candidate.
His words, “From our recommendations, as of this morning, we recommended five people. In alphabetical order, we said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, John Kayode Fayemi, David Umahi and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Those are the ones we made recommendations and we said we should put them forward.
“Consensus is possible. Right from yesterday up till today, we have been doing consultations like Mr President said, ‘I give you the opportunity, work on it.
“The governors and the National Working Committee will continue on that consensus. As of yesterday, we were able to even reduce, made recommendations of about five persons, from 23 to recommendations of about 13 aspirants without disqualifying anybody.
”Within that 13 aspirants that were graded by the Screening Committee, we now looked at it and then recommended, that was jointly done by the Progressive governors and members of the National Working Committee, reducing it to five.”
However, about 2,322 delegates from 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)CT are already in Abuja to elect a flagbearer for the party.
In North West, a state-by-state analysis of the delegates shows that Kano has 132; Kaduna, 69; Katsina, 102; Kebbi, 63; Jigawa, 81; Sokoto, 69, while Zamfara has 42.
In North East, Taraba has 48; Bauchi, 60; Adamawa, 63; Gombe, 33; Borno, 81, while Yobe has 51 delegates.
in South East, Abia has 51 delegates, Anambra, 63; Ebonyi, 39; Enugu, 51 and Imo, 81.
In South West, Lagos has 60; Ogun, 60; Ondo, 54; Ekiti, 48; Oyo, 99 and Osun, 90.
In South-South, Akwa Ibom has 93; Cross River, 54; Bayelsa, 24; Delta, 75; Rivers, 69 and Edo 57.
In North Central, Kwara has 48; Kogi, 63; Niger, 75; Nasarawa, 39; Plateau, 51; Benue, 66, while FCT has 18.
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