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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Strong indications have emerged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary may be decided through an election as most of the aspirants have refused to sacrifice their ambition by stepping down for each other few hours to the commencement of voting.
Earlier, speculations were riff that the race has been reduced to three aspirants, comprising Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.
Few hours later, another report trended that the northern APC Governors have shortlisted and submitted the names of five aspirants to President Muhammadu Buhari for consideration.
But responding to the report in a letter the sent to President Buhari, aspirants of South East extraction pleaded with Mr President to pick a consensus candidate from any of them.
Equally speaking on a television outfit, the Director-General of Yemi Osinbajo Support Groups, Kabiru Gaya, had claimed that the presidential contest has been narrowed between Tinubu and Osinbajo.
Reacting immediately, the duo of Amaechi and Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba claimed that they have not thrown the towel, announcing that they are still in the race.
Dismissing the claims that the governors shortlisted the trio of Tinubu, Osinbajo, Ameachi, Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, confirmed that the party was set for an election in the event that the 23 candidates do not agree on a consensus arrangement.
Speaking during a television interview at the venue of the convention, Sule said: “People are actually mistaken and forgetting what the electoral act says. The governors have no power to reduce the number of aspirants, not even the party. According to section 84 subsection 9 to 10 of the act, it shows clearly that if one person says I am not going to withdraw, then, there is going to be an election.
“As far as we are concerned, we are ready for election, and if all the 23 people that are there are screened by the party and allowed for election, we will conduct an election.
“So, the idea of pruning down or selecting a number of people that Governors do is just to reduce the number of people that we intend to support in order to reduce the tension. It is not necessary to force anybody actually to step down.
“The number of people that we will be supporting has not been pruned down to three, it is still five. Sometimes you don’t always get what You want. I think Mr President definitely wanted consensus in order to reduce the rancour,” he said.
Already, almost all the aspirants are already at Eagle Square, venue of the exercise, including Vice President Osinbajo, the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, his Ebonyi counterpart, Dave Umahi, Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi, former governor of Zamfara State, Sani Yarima, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, Rotimi Amaechi, among others.
