An All Progressives Congress (APC) pressure group, under the umbrella of South-East Front, rose from several hours stakeholder’s meetings, endorsing the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, to emerge as the party’s consensus presidential candidate.
In a communique raised after the meeting and signed by the representatives of the group in the five South East States, the stakeholders hinged their endorsement of Lawan on his ability to counter the political ambush by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) settling for Atiku Abubakar as its candidate.
According to the communique; ‘After an extensive analysis of the political developments in Nigeria today with a view to the outcome of the PDP Primary election a few days ago, the mood of the nation and of course the expectation of our people that power would shift to the Southern part of Nigeria in 2023 where even our South West and South-South brothers would have had the conscience to cede the contest of the Nigeria’s President to the South East considering the enormous sacrifices the South East had made in support of both zones who took a shot at the presidency at different times since 1999.
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‘It has become apparent that PDP has once again laid ambush for our party the APC by choosing it’s candidate from the North East instead of the South East. We believe that this is compelling and still within the confines of equity and fairness considering the fact that neither North East nor South Eastern parts of the country had produced a president in the history of our country.
‘With this power convolution in mind, we the people of the South East do hereby call on our amiable President Muhamadu Buhari, our great party the APC, all delegates to the presidential primary election to consider and choose Ahmed Lawan as the candidate of our party for the 2023 presidential election, being that the PDP has chosen it’s presidential candidate from the North East Zone.
‘It is our belief that our great party, the APC, will consider the sacrifices which the South East has continued to make towards the development of our party and the nation in the future.
‘While we continue to consult and mobilize support, we urge our southeast brothers to demonstrate confidence as this is the quickest route to the primary office of the nation,’ the statement noted in the statement.’
Sign by Sam Nkire, A.C Ude, Timothy Chukwuma, Chris Chukwuka, Ucha J.A, Emeka Umeakuka, Henry Obi, among others signed the communique.