Governors of the All Progressives Congress have begun reaching out to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), with a view to getting him to convince the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to withhold assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill as passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday, IgbereTV reports.
The APC Governors’ Forum is led by the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu. Malami is also from Kebbi State and is rumoured to be nursing a governorship ambition in 2023.
An aide to one of the APC governors told IgbereTV that like other bills that were forwarded to the President, Buhari was expected to forward the electoral bill to Malami for legal advice.
The source said, “The President is expected to receive the bill next week after which he will forward it to Malami for legal advice. What the governors now plan to do is to lobby Malami to ensure that the bill is not assented to. Malami is from Kebbi, just like Bagudu; so, the governors are hopeful that he will listen to Bagudu.”
The Kebbi governor had on Monday held a meeting with eight other governors on the platform of the party in Abuja and afterwards briefed the media on their decision.
The governors in attendance were Dr Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), David Umahi (Ebonyi), Mai Mala Buni (Yobe), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano) and Mohammed Badaru (Jigawa).
He argued that the direct primary system would be too cumbersome for the Independent National Electoral Commission to supervise.
