The spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairmanship Campaign Council for Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, Senator Victor Lar, has said Sheriff cannot be schemed out of the race because of the key role he played in the formation of the party and its success at different stages.
Reacting to reports that Sheriff had been edged out of the race, Sen Lar, in a telephone chat with Daily Trust, said,” He has been edged out on what grounds? Has the APC concluded and announced the zoning formula? This is fake news targeted at de-marketing Senator Sheriff.”
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He also described as fake news reports that the top shots of the party, including governors and those at the presidency, had narrowed down on four of the contenders out of the many vying for the chairmanship seat.
Sen Lar said Sheriff had all it took to strengthen and mobilise support for the party ahead of 2023, and appealed to other aspirants to step down and endorse him.
He said, “Some are saying the chairman should come from the North Central because certain people come from some blocs; no. The legacy parties that constituted the APC, one of them, the CPC, was one of the least of all, having only one governor that time, with limited numbers in the National Assembly, yet the presidential ticket was ceded to CPC.
“Sheriff was the one who led ANPP coalition to the merger. So it is an IOU to Sheriff and his former constituency that having been in the merger and not having the pioneering slots, they should be considered this time. So I will appeal to all other aspirants to step down.”
How I will strengthen APC as chair – Moniedafe
Meanwhile, another top contender for the national chairmanship of the APC, Sunny Sylvester Moniedafe, has said he would strengthen the party if given the mandate at the February 26, 2022, national convention.
Moniedafe, the Jagaban Jimeta, from Adamawa State, told Daily Trust in an interview at the weekend that he would promote the principle of reward system, establish a Board of Trustees (BoT), elders’ council in all the state chapters of the party and ensure strict adherence to the party’s constitution.
He explained that the elders’ council in states would be saddled with the responsibility of quickly wading into internal crises at that level and resolving them.
He said, “I will convince members to be paying N100 only per month to run the party while the state governors would be allowed to concentrate on generating revenue in their states to give dividends of democracy to the people.”