Our Reporter, Abuja
The Southern Governors’ Forum has described the purported announcement of the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, as the All Progressives Congress, APC, consensus presidential candidate, as an “expensive joke.”
The APC national chairman, Senator Abdullahi, Adamu had earlier announced Lawan as the party’s consensus candidate to members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party.
But in a swift reaction, the Southern Governors’ Forum has through a statement signed by its Chairman and Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, rejected the announcement of Lawan calling it an expensive joke.
“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 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,” Akeredolu wrote.
It would be recalled that the northern governors had earlier met President Buhari, and restated their position to have a Southern member as APC’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general election after 8 years of a northern president as “a matter of honour.”
