Six national chairmanship aspirants in the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship race have stepped down for Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, adjudged the preferred candidate of the party’s leadership for the position.
Adamu had been endorsed by President Muhammad Buhari after series of meetings with governors of the party in the build up to national convention.
This was stated in a letter addressed to the Chairman, APC Election Sub-Committee and signed by one of the aspirants, Sen. George Akume, made available to newsmen on Saturday in Abuja.
The letter reads: “May I kindly refer to the appeal by President Muhammad Buhari for the chairmanship aspirants of our great party to agree to a consensus arrangement wherein our colleague Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is made our consensus candidate for the chairmanship position,” said Akume.
He forwarded letters of withdrawal from Sen. Tanko Al-Makura, Sen. George Akume, Abdulaziz Yari, Sen. Sani Musa Muhammed, Etsu Muhammed and Malam Saliu Mustapha.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the APC had earlier in a tweet, said no fewer than 7, 584 delegates would vote at the convention.
Gov. Abudulahi Sule of Nasarawa State had earlier hinted that President Buhari had appealed that the party should come up with a consensus candidate to ensure a peaceful and rancour-free convention.
Sule, chairman APC Sub-Committee on Media and Publicity for the National Convention, said the decision followed President Buhari’s appealed for a consensus candidate.
He said the party’s leadership might refund money paid by aspirants for the purchase of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms after the emergence of consensus candidate.
“This was an appeal made by Buhari to show leadership; he said once we agreed on the consensus, it is only fair that what they paid to purchase the forms be returned to them.
“That is his request, and I am telling you, his request will be honoured, because we know he is doing it sincerely for the benefit of the party.
“It was a request actually made by the president to the leadership of the party and the leadership were there, so, I will say that the leadership of the party also agreed,” Sule had said.
The APC chairmanship aspirants paid N20 million each to purchase the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest the position zoned to the North-Central by its leadership.
NAN reports that the APC National Convention is a climax of activities which started with Wards, Local Government and State Congresses.
Sixty-five National Working Committee (NWC) members are expected to be elected at the convention, including 21 NWC members and 45 non NWC members.
The party’s affairs until now, was being managed by the Gov. Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) whose tenure comes to an end after the convention.
