Gov. Yahaya Bello
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EKO HOT BLOG reports that Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has rejected the emergence of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan as the consensus presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu had earlier announced Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate.
Adamu made the announcement at the meeting of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja on Monday, June 6, 2022, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s call for a consensus candidate ahead of the party convention.
But APC governors in the north have protested against the development insisting that the party’s presidential ticket should be zoned to the southern region.
The governors were said to have stood their ground during their meeting with the president on Monday.
The governors also reportedly demanded that aspirants from the northern region should withdraw from the presidential race.
It would be recalled that last week after some APC governors asked their colleagues with a presidential ambition to withdraw from the presidential race for power to shift to the south, Governor Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State stepped down.
But Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State refused to withdraw from the race.
Following their meeting with Buhari, the governors in a communique said, “After a careful deliberation, we wish to state our firm conviction that after eight years in the office of President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 elections should be one of our teeming members from the southern states of Nigeria.
“It is a question of honour for the APC, an obligation that is not in any way affected by the decisions taken by another political party.”
However, it is reported that Governor Bello of Kogi stormed out of the governor’s meeting with Buhari when his colleagues asked him to step down like governor Badaru.
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Confirming this, Governor Nasir El-Rufai said Bello excused himself from the meeting with the President because he rejected the resolution made by the governors.
El-Rufai maintained that 13 out of 14 yeses are enough to front the agenda for a southern candidate.
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