National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, has said that the party has not taken a decision on zoning of the presidency.
He said this while fielding questions after he led a delegation comprising the National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore; Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, and the Chairman of the campaign committee for the Ekiti election, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, to present the governorship candidate for the June 18 election in Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji, to President Muhammadu Buhari. Adamu said no decision has been reached on the zone to produce its presidential candidate for the 2023 election. This comes as the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) led by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, has begun fresh moves to pressure major political parties to throw their tickets open to all sections of the country, saying that “power shift arrangement is already dead and buried.”
While stating that the APC was yet to decide, he maintained: “I am today privileged to be the chairman of the party. The party is greater than me. The party has not made a decision and I cannot preempt what the party decision will be.”
On why the ruling party had set the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms for the presidential ticket at a staggering N100 million, governorship ticket at N50 million, Senate at N20 million, and N10 million for the House of Representatives, Adamu asserted that the for APC, the strategy was to discourage parties that have no chance of winning election to sponsor individuals to play the role of spoilers. According to him, the cost also had to be exorbitant because of the need to raise sufficient funds to successfully prosecute coming elections.
He said: “On the issue of cost of forms, we have no regrets whatsoever. We did some homework. We know what it takes to go through primaries, go through presidential campaign, go through election of the president.
“We also do know that there are citizens who are qualified to contest but who are not serious contenders, who will just want to take anything cheap by the roadside, and assert what they call their rights and create problems for our party.”
(Sun)