300,000 APC members to choose presidential candidate

The All Progressives Congress has said that it will conduct a primary election in which at least 300,000 of its members will determine the party’s presidential candidate for the 2015 election.

The party said it would not adopt the delegate system in the primary election but the modified direct system, which would involve such large number of people that would be difficult for aspirants to buy over.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said this at the end of the party’s first National Executive Council meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

He said the party’s primaries for all positions would commence in October.

The party also condemned the various political rallies already being held for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term bid.

Mohammed said unlike the PDP, which would automatically adopt President Jonathan as its candidate, the APC would hold a credible primary election for all positions.

It said the Peoples Democratic Party and President Jonathan were violating the electoral guidelines with impunity, with the support Jonathan rallies.

While it maintained that the party would win the forthcoming October 11 governorship bye-election in Adamawa State, it said the recent defection of the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu, to the PDP would not have any adverse effect on its fortune in the state.

Ribadu had contested the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, which was one of the opposition party that merged to become the APC.

Already, former Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others are said to be making underground moves to emerge   the party’s consensus candidate.

Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso of Kano State and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, though still a member of the PDP, have also been tipped as possible candidates of the APC in the 2015 presidential election.

Buhari, Atiku, Kwakwanso, Governors Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State were among those who attended the NEC meeting.