President Muhammadu Buhari has shunned request by governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to drop Senator Abdullahi Adamu as his choice consensus candidate for the party’s national championship position.
Adamu, 75, a former governor of Nasarawa State who represents Nasarawa West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, is said to be President Buhari’s most favoured candidate for the APC chairmanship position, but the party’s governors are opposed to the idea and had on Tuesday made attempts to encourage Buhari to drop the senator.
However, a source present at the meeting on Tuesday with Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja shortly before he left for Kenya, confirmed that the President remained adamant about his choice.
The President was said to have bluntly refused to shift ground when the governors advanced their reasons against Adamu becoming the national chairman.
In a related development, the governors have insisted that the national convention scheduled for March 26 in Abuja will hold despite the tight time frame provided by the time table of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released for next year’s general elections.
The chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, gave this assurance after he led governors of the party to meet with President Buhari.
Chairman of the chairman of the APC Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, (CECPC) and Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni, was however absent at the meeting.