John Oyegun, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) screening panel, has provided reasons why some presidential aspirants were disqualified on Friday ahead of the primaries of the party.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that no fewer than 10 individuals who were looking to contest in the ruling party’s primary have been cut off.
While presenting a report to APC national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, Oyegun said: ‘The point I want to make is the quality of the people that want to govern this country.
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‘We are a governing party and so the ability to lead, the background, experience… it is on the basis that we made a shortlist.
‘I won’t want to read the names, I’d leave that to you, but we brought the number down to 13.
‘We could have cut it a little shorter but we wanted the younger elements to surface.’
Details of the presidential aspirants who did not make the cut are not yet known.
Oyegun had also revealed that 99 percent of its presidential aspirants agreed to support a consensus candidate.
‘We engaged every aspirant on the issue of consensus,’ he told Adamu. ‘It is a pleasant surprise that 99 percent agreed that the party is supreme. And that whatever the party decides – with proper consultation – they will likely accept.
‘Only one exception, who said I will accept consensus only if it is for me. I think it is a point that needs to be made and emphasised.
‘So that gives you a lot of leeway in the hours ahead to trim down even more drastically.
‘But finally we think we should not be afraid of a contested primary if anybody insists on a contest.’
Mr Oyegun had announced that it disqualified 10 out of the 23 aspirants screened for the exercise.
According to Mr Oyegun, only 13 out of the 23 aspirants screened were cleared by the committee.
