APC Primaries: Buhari rules out preferred presidential candidate, says delegates will decide

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he has no anointed candidate in the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Buhari said this at a meeting with governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

According to Garba Shehu, Presidential spokesman, Buhari cleared all doubts about where he stands on the choice of a presidential candidate for the ruling party.

Shehu said the president told the party’s 14 governors of northern states that he has “no preferred candidate,” and has “anointed no one,” and is determined to ensure that “there shall be no imposition of any candidate on the party.”

“The President said he had a clear mind about what he was doing and asked the APC governors to feel the same way: “You were elected as I was. Have a clear mind as I have. God gave us the chance; we have no reason to complain. We must be ready to take pain as we take the joy. Allow the delegates to decide. The Party must participate, nobody will appoint anybody.”

Earlier in their addresses, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Governor Simon Bako Lalong and Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of the Progressive Governors Forum, said they had come to affirm the position of the Northern Governors that the party’s candidate in the presidential election shall come from the southern part of the country.

They apologised to the President for the leakage of their signed memorandum which was not in support of any particular candidate and gave assurances to the President on their readiness to accept his leadership on the matter.