The National Chairman of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, John Oyegun, has said that President
Muhammadu Buhari, remains Nigeria’s President in 2019, if he accepts to
run.
Oyegun had declared in May that the
party would give Buhari a “right of first refusal” for the party’s
Presidential ticket in 2019. This was however, unperturbed by Bisi
Akande’s remark, when responding to a question on Saturday night.
Akande had at the end of a Stakeholders
meeting of South-West APC involving Governors, National Assembly
members, Ministers, and other party members, held at the Agodi
Government House, Ibadan, Oyo State, declared that the Presidential
ticket of the party was open to all in the 2019 general elections.
Reacting, Oyegun said
there was really nothing to say as far as the reportage of Akande’s
statement was concerned, because it was his personal position, and he
had a right to it.
“That is his personal view. He said what
he felt. There is really nothing to comment about – nothing. That is
his personal view”, Oyegun said.
Elsewhere, in his reaction to the
development, a Chieftain of the APC and Director-General of the Voice of
Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu, said regardless of Akande’s view on the
party’s Presidential ticket for the 2019 elections, a majority of the
State chapters in South-East have endorsed Buhari for re-election.
Okechukwu said Buhari had “more than a right of first refusal” as far as the 2019 Presidential election is concerned.
“Well, Akande was our
first interim National Chairman and a highly respected elder of the
party, but Chief Oyegun is today our current National Chairman of APC –
substantive – so we align with Oyegun’s submission, because he is the
current Chairman.
“Even some State chapters of the party
like Enugu, Ebonyi, and Kaduna, had endorsed the President for a second
tenure. To be honest with you, the good luck is that his miraculous
recovery has encouraged us to endorse him. He has more than a right of
first refusal.”
Okechukwu, a close Ally of President
Buhari since his days in the defunct Congress for Progressive Change,
CPC, added: “From my understanding of what Chief Akande has said, I
think he meant that President Buhari has not formally informed the
party, and it is only when he tells the party. I do not think what he is
saying is that the issue of the right of the first refusal is
discountenanced. For me, I am one of those who are saying we should
support him to finish what he is doing to set the nation on a solid
foundation.”
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