APC not decided yet on zoning presidency – Adamu

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on Friday, said the party has not decided on which of the six zones in Nigeria will produce the presidential candidate for the 2023 election, despite the commencement of the sale of nomination forms.

This is even as the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) led by Prof Ango Abdullahi announced fresh moves to pressure the major political parties to throw their tickets open to all sections of the country, saying that the “power shift arrangement is already dead and buried.”

Speaking to newsmen after presenting the Ekiti APC gubernatorial candidate, Abiodun Oyebanji, to President Muhammadu Buhari in the State House, Abuja, Adamu noted that the decision on which part of the country should produce the ruling party candidate was beyond his purview as Chairman.

“The party has not made a decision and I cannot pre-empt what the party decision will be,” Adamu said.

APC had swapped its national offices between North and South, leading to the emergence of Adamu from the North Central as the national chairman.

Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State had said just before the last national convention of the party that even though the APC had not decided on zoning the presidential ticket, the swapping of national offices was an indication that its presidential candidate would come from southern Nigeria.

On the criticism trailing the price tags of the party’s nomination forms, Adamu said the APC has no regrets over the decision as it was meant to separate the serious contenders from pretenders, adding that “we did our homework.”

The APC chairman insisted that the party was poised to discourage parties that have no chance of winning elections to sponsor individuals to destabilise its plans.

He further said the party raised the cost so as to raise sufficient funds to successfully prosecute the forthcoming elections.