The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Monday described as a huge joke the purported endorsement of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the All Progressives Congress (APC) consensus candidate ahead of the party’s 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 presidential primary.
However, several top members of the APC including the party’s governors from the North had rejected the move to impose the Yobe-born Senate President on the party.
In a statement issued on Monday night, Akeredolu stressed that the development was contrary to the agreement reached by governors from the North on the zoning of APC presidential ticket to the Southern part of the country.
He added that Adamu had made public his preferred APC presidential candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
The statement read: “My attention has just been drawn to the expensive joke purportedly enacted by the National Chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. The speculation is rife that the chairman took a flight of fancy and decided to make a pronouncement beyond his competence.
“He has, allegedly, made public his preferred choice as the candidate of the APC for the Office of the President in the next general elections.
“This alleged pronouncement runs contrary to the position of the majority of Northern Governors in APC and their counterparts in the South. Our agreement is unanimous on this issue. The office of the President should be contested for by qualified persons from the Southern part of the country if the move to get a consensus candidate fails. There has been no shift from this settled issue.
“Let it be known that the Chairman or anyone who holds a contrary opinion does so at a personal level. He is at best embarking on a frolic which reasonable people will consider dangerous.
“We are grieving but have not forgotten that Power MUST shift to the south. On this we stand
