APC chairmanship: Lalong counters Fayemi, says Buhari told governors his preferred candidate

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has confirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari told Governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of his preference for Abdullahi Adamu as National Chairman of the party.

Daily Trust had exclusively reported how Buhari told APC stakeholders about his preference for Adamu.

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The endorsement of Adamu had created a rift within the ruling party, but the president invited governors to a meeting at Aso Rock on Wednesday, where the issue was resolved, according to sources.

A governor from the North West told Daily Trust that there was no objection when the endorsement of Adamu was raised. He said the issue of the national secretary was also resolved.

A top source, while corroborating the governor’s statement, said during the villa meeting, the governors aligned themselves with Buhari’s position on Adamu.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, which was also attended by Fayemi, the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, said a truce was reached to fill the National Working Committee (NWC) positions through consensus.

But speaking at a high-level policy dialogue organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), on Thursday, Fayemi said he was not aware of any agreement on consensus.

Fayemi said this while responding to one of the questions asked during the interactive session.

“As for your question on whether the President (Muhammadu Buhari) has anointed anyone, I have no knowledge of that. But the President is well within his rights to have a prefer candidate… if his candidate wins, fine; if his candidate loses, he would have to live with that,” Fayemi said.

However, when he featured on Channels TV’s Politics Today, still on Thursday, Lalong contradicted Fayemi, saying Buhari had made his preference for Adamu known.

Lalong said party delegates who do not agree with Buhari were free to vote for their choice at the forthcoming convention.

“I watched the grievances of some of very key supporters of our party. I think analysing it very well, the constitution and the Electoral Act provides for three dimensions, Direct Primary, Indirect Primary and Consensus. Now in our own case, to those who say it has not been available in our own party, it is the same case.”

“I came from PDP to CPC and then the merger that led to the birth of APC. In PDP, it’s almost the same. The last election that was conducted by PDP was consensus. In APC, after the tenure of Baba Akande (interim Chairman of the APC), we elected John Oyegun; it was done by consensus. The second one that was done, that’s during the time of Oshiomhole, was done by consensus and that’s why the president has said ‘Let us continue with consensus.’ As much as possible, let’s have consensus. The fact that the party has adopted consensus does not mean that it will stop anybody from contesting elections.”

Asked who the preferred aspirant of the party is, Lalong said, “It is very well known now. The governors approached Mr President and asked, ‘do you have an input; do you have an input as to who should be the candidate? In summary, this is done in most cases and the president would say, ‘I would prefer Mr A’.

“The governors asked the president do you have a candidate and he said, ‘I prefer that the chairman should come from the North-Central zone. We went back again after deliberations and we asked ‘do you have a preferred candidate in the North-Central zone?’  and he said, ‘yes, I will prefer if Abdullahi Adamu’.”