7th June, 2022
By Emmanuel Mogbede
The All Progressives Congress’ (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) has denied reports that it has endorsed Senate President Ahmad Lawan, as its consensus candidate for 2023 election.
Alhaji Sulaiman Arugugun, APC National Organising Secretary said this when he spoke with newsmen after an NWC meeting in Abuja on Monday.
He acknowledged that Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, the APC National Chairman briefed the committee on the issue, saying however, that it was not deliberated at the meeting.
“You can see that we are all just coming out of the NWC meeting and we were fully briefed by our national chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu.
“And he did briefed us that Sen. Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate is our consensus candidate for the APC national convention.
“That is the information he gave us, but it is not an issue that was deliberated on the floors of the NWC. It was just an information he gave us and all of us are entitled to our opinions as democrats,” Argungu said.
The APC National Organising Secretary added that the decision was not from the party’s NWC, stressing that it was an individual decision that was never deliberated by the committee.
Arugugun said that the APC NWC was in agreement with Saturday’s resolution of the 11 Northern governors that the presidency must shift to the South in 2023 after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The 11 governors from the North had in a statement, announced their support for power shift to the South at the end of the tenure of Buhari.
The governors while urging APC presidential aspirants from the region to step down from the 2023 presidential race, said, ”the decision to support power shift to the South is in the best interest of the country”.
The Northern APC governors also commended their Jigawa counterpart, Gov. Abubakar Badaru, for withdrawing from the race ahead of the presidential primaries slated from June 6 to June 8.
The governors who signed the communique at the end of the meeting included Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State, Gov. Sani Bello, Niger; Gov.Abdullahi Sule, Nasarawa and Gov. Umara Zulum, Borno.
Others were Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, Gov. Umar Ganduje, Kano State; Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and former Gov. Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto; Gov. Nasir El-Rufai, Kaduna State; Gov. Muhammad Yahaya, Gombe state, and Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara.
Buhari had at a meeting with APC presidential aspirants on Saturday, approved power shift to the South in 2023 poll.