•••SAYS THERE SHALL BE NO CANDIDATE IMPOSITION
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday denied ever “anointing ” any aspirant as the party’s presidential candidate in the build up to the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary election.
The President denied the purported endorsement of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, in statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity, Garba Shehu.
According to Shehu, the statement was to cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the ruling APC.
Shehu said that the governors of APC also apologized to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.
He said that the President had declared before the party’s 14 governors of Northern extraction that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” adding that he was determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”
Shehu quoted the President in the statement as saying that the party is important and that they should allow the delegates to decide.
“The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “You were elected as I was.
“Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy.
“Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”
Shehu said the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, said they were in the State House to affirm the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.
“They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.” He said.