Ndi Igbo Abandons Biafra And Endorses Buhari For 2019 Presidency.
[irp]
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.
[irp]
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.”
[irp]
