A key ally of the former Minister of Transportation and business mogul, Tonye Cole, has been declared the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC), governorship primaries in Rivers State.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Cole is said to be the preferred candidate of Amaechi who is also eyeing the office of the Nigerian Presidency.
Tonye Cole defeated five other aspirants to emerge winner with 986 votes.
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His closest rival, Ojukaye Flag Amachree, a former state chairman of the APC, polled 190 votes to come second, while Sokonte Davies came 3rd with 46 votes.
Senator Magnus Abe, who did not take part in the primaries, however, scored 1 vote.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has explained why he thinks that the consensus method which was used in electing party officers during the March 26, 2022 convention may not be feasible for the party’s presidential primary which begins on Sunday.
The APC chairman made this known during a chat with Voice of America Hausa service in Abuja on Wednesday which was monitored by Africa Daily News, New York.
Adamu emerged as the APC chairman in March after President Muhammadu Buhari, endorsed him and asked other aspirants to step down for him.
However, the APC chairman said a presidential primary was completely different from a chairmanship election.
On plans by the party to force a consensus, he said, ‘There is no truth in what you said. The reason is that the chairmanship seat is not the same as that of the tussle for the Presidency of the country. You can’t even compare the two of them. That question does not arise.
‘However the party has laid down its rules and regulations for the aspirants. We would scrutinise all of them based on our guidelines to be sure we pick the right candidate for the party.’
The APC chairman, however, said the 28 aspirants ought to know that all of them cannot emerge as candidate of the party.