The All Progressives Congress, APC, has declared that every aspirant for the office of president on the platform of the party would be given a level playing field to pursue his aspirations.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, stated this in an interview with National Mirror.
He was reacting to rumour making the rounds that the party had offered its ticket to former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, to contest the 2015 presidential election.
The spokesman described the story as the “handiwork of APC detractors, who were only shouting wolves, where there was none.”
According to him, only four aspirants had signified intention to seek APC’s presidential ticket in the February general elections. They include: publisher of Leadership newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Head of State, Buhari and Kano State governor, Rabiu kwankwaso.[eap_ad_2]
He said: “I know these are people who have disclosed their interest to run for President on our platform. We are finalising on that and it will be published very soon.
“The issue of automatic ticket does not arrive. It is not in our constitution and for those who have been planting the story that we are going to have anointed candidate, they will be disappointed.”
Describing peddlers of the rumour as agents of destabilisation and enemies of progress, Muhammed said that APC candidates “at all levels, state Houses of Assembly, governorship, House of Representatives, Senate and the presidency, will emerge through a transparent primary.”
On fears of imposition being entertained by party members across the country, the APC National Publicity secretary said: “I don’t think those fears are justified. Our guideline will be applied uniformly in all states in the 2015 elections.
“Honestly, because I have been involved in most of the rigorous debate on guidelines and electioneering, I know that even within the party, we are going to provide a level playing field for every aspirant on our platform. I think anybody expressing that fear should banish it, people should go out and mobilise and sell themselves to the party members.”
On the mobilisation by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State to take over the state in 2015, Muhammed said: “They have always been mobilising, they mobilised in 1998, in 2003, in 2007 and even in 2011, you see when you are in competition, mobilisation is not out of place, but I can assure you that we are firmly in control and our records are there for every Lagosian to see”.[eap_ad_3]
