THE All Progressives Congress’ presidential committee has disqualified 10 aspirants from its primaries scheduled for next week.
Chairman of the Committee, John Oyegun, revealed this today.
According to Oyegun, only 13 out of the 23 aspirants screened were cleared by the committee.
He added that only youthful aspirants made the list of cleared aspirants.
However when asked about the identity of the disqualified aspirants, Oyegun declined to disclose the names.
“And on that basis (Constitution) every single member or aspirant that presented himself qualified because it was basic and simple. But we are in the governing party and we are keen on continuing the process of replacing—at a proper time—our president with another member of the party.
“It is on that basis that we made our final shortlist. I don’t want to read the names which I think would leave to you (Chairman) but we have a shortlist. We brought the number severely down to 13.
“We could have cut it a little shorter but we wanted deliberately the younger elements to surface for them to be seen, for them to be noticed and no noise. We would hand them over to the party and it is for the party to decide whom their candidate will be.”
“We engaged every aspirant on the issue of consensus and it was a pleasant surprise that 99 per cent agreed that the party is supreme and whatever the party finally decides, with proper consultations, they were likely to accept. There is only one person that said I will accept consensus as long as it is based on me.
“So, I think it is a point I need to emphasise on it. That gives you a way in the hours ahead to trim down even more drastically. But finally, we think we should not be afraid of the contested primary if anybody insists on the contest,” he said.
The committee held the screening exercise between Monday and Tuesday this week.
Aspirants screened by the seven-member panel include a former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; a former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.
Others are Rotimi Amaechi, Ajayi Borroffice, Godswill Akpabio, Rochas Okorocha, Ibikunle Amosun, Tunde Bakare, Ben Ayade, Dave Umahi, Kayode Fayemi, Emeka Nwajiuba, Ken Nnamani, Yahaya Bello, Badaru Abubakar and Ahmed Yerima, Uju Kennedy Ohnenye, Nicholas Felix Nwagbo, Dimeji Bankole, Timipre Sylva, Ikeobasi Mokelu andTein Jack Rich.
Cleared aspirants are expected to contest the presidential primary at a scheduled special convention in Abuja between June 6 and 8.
