It has been a war of schemes and counter schemes as seven presidential aspirants contesting under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have totally rejected the five names that were submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari to select a consensus candidate.
They insisted nobody consulted them before the Governors arrived at the decision.
The aggrieved aspirants made this claim in a terse statement issued in the early hours of Tuesday.
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The aspirants include Governor of Cross River, Ben Ayade; Ex-Minister for state for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; Ex-Minister for science and technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; former governor Rochas Okorocha and businessman Tein Jack-Rich.
The aspirants said President Buhari did not equivocally support zoning the presidency to the South and questioned the motive of the governors.
“Mr. President’s directive is very simple, that all Presidential aspirants including those from the North should meet and harmonise in order to produce a single candidate. As it stands we have not been consulted or attended a meeting where it was agreed that such names be sent to Mr. President,” the statement read in part.
Onu added, “We also have it on good authority that the majority of these Governors have been promised and also given various forms of gratifications to thwart the process in favour of one aspirant and such grand plot will fail woefully.
“Moreso, the party led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu remains the official organ of the party through which decisions taken by stakeholders in the party will be communicated and acted upon, in the absence of that any other move remains null and void.”
The names submitted to Buhari are said to include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, APC National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State.