Govs reduce shortlisted aspirants to Osinbajo, Tinubu, Amaechi

The northern governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have further reduced the shortlisted presidential aspirants to three.

The governors had in the early hours of Tuesday forwarded the names of five southern aspirants to President Muhammadu Buhari for consideration as a consensus presidential candidate.

The presidential aspirants earlier shortlisted by the governors were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; APC national leader, Bola Tinubu; Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; his Ebonyi State counterpart, David Umahi; and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

It was, however, gathered that the governors have reduced the shortlisted presidential aspirants to three with Tinubu, Osibanjo, and Amaechi making the proposed list.

The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, who had earlier spoken on the development, said the shortlist will not bar other aspirants from contesting the ongoing presidential primaries at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, on Tuesday, Lalong said the APC is looking at the possibility of a consensus candidate.

The governor added that the names submitted were graded by the party’s screening committee.

He said: “From our own recommendations, as of this morning, we recommended five people. In alphabetical order, we said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, John Kayode Fayemi, David Umahi, and Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Those are the ones we made recommendations and we said we should put them forward.

“Consensus is possible. Right from yesterday up till today, we have been doing consultations like Mr President said, ‘I give you the opportunity, work on it.’

“The governors and the National Working Committee will continue on that consensus. As of yesterday, we were able to even reduce, made recommendations of about five persons, from 23 to recommendations of about 13 aspirants without disqualifying anybody.

“Within that 13 aspirants that were graded by the Screening Committee, we now looked at it and then recommended, that was jointly done by the Progressive governors and members of the National Working Committee, reducing it to five,” Governor Lalong stated.

The Star