The Legal Directorate of Bola Tinubu Campaign Organization has reacted to the purported adoption of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) consensus candidate ahead of the party’s presidential primary in Abuja, IgbereTV reports
The APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, had during the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Abuja announced Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate for the election.
However, in a statement issued on Monday night by the Director, Legal Directorate for the Campaign Organization, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), the team described the adoption of a consensus candidate at this time as impossible.
It argued that such declaration of a consensus candidate with just 24 hours to the exercise was premature and a violation of extant provisions of the law.
The statement read: “The media is inundated with reports that the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has unilaterally announced the purported adoption of a certain candidate as the consensus presidential candidate of the APC for the presidential election in 2023.
“While the National Chairman is yet to deny or offer any clarification on the alleged declaration, it is necessary to state that such a declaration is a legal impossibility. This is because the under the regime of the Electoral Act 2022, consensus, though provided for as one of the means by which a political party may produce its candidate, must specifically occur in a precise form.”
“However, we are confident that as a law-abiding entity, the APC will not be part of such. We are further persuaded to urge our supporters to disregard this report considering that the overwhelming majority of the APC Northern Governors who, after meeting with the President, re-affirmed their preference for a president from the Southern part of Nigeria.
“This patriotic decision is widely accepted by all Nigerians as a demonstration of deep understanding of the nuanced fault lines of our nation.
“In this circumstance, a unilateral declaration by the National Chairman of a consensus presidential candidate for the party will not only violate the law, but set the party on a collision course with its Governors who are critical stakeholders in the party
