By The governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu has reacted to the announcement of Senate President Ahmad Lawan as the consensus presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing it as an “expensive joke”.
BlackBox Nigeria had reported that the ruling party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, on Monday, told the National Working Committee (NWC) that Lawan is the preferred candidate of President Muhammadu Buhari — a pronouncement that has since sparked outrage in the ruling party.
Interestingly, Northern APC governors, some members of NWC and the presidency have faulted the claims.
Also reacting in a statement on Monday night, Akeredolu who is the Chairman of Southern Governors’ Forum noted that Adamu “took a flight of fancy and decided to make a pronouncement beyond his competence”.
He said the alleged pronouncement runs contrary to the position of majority of Northern Governors in APC and their counterparts in the South.
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. pic.twitter.com/roNH0nMV2i
— Arakunrin Akeredolu (@RotimiAkeredolu) June 6, 2022
“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,” the statement added.
“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.”
