Presidential primaries: APC screens Tinubu, Amaechi, Umahi, others

• As Uzodinma accompanies Ekweremadu to ruling party secretariat

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

After weeks of dilly-dally and speculation, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) yesterday commenced the screening of its presidential aspirants, including former Lagos Governor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, former Minister of Transportation and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, and former Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba.

Others screened by the party are Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, Uju Kennedy Ohanenye, Tunde Bakare, Nicholas Felix, among others.

The screening which is being conducted behind closed doors, commenced around 1pm at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, where supporters of the aspirants had thronged to give solidarity.

Former chairman of APC and elder statesman, John Odigie Oyegun is the chairman of the party’s screening Committee.

Before the screening, the National Working Committee of the party had held an emergency meeting, but refused to address journàlists.

Note that the screening of the APC presidential aspirants was earlier scheduled to take place on May 23, but was later suspended indefinitely by the National Working Committee (NWC) led by senator Abdullahi Adamu.

For the past three weeks, APC had put on hold the screening of its presidential aspirants, giving birth to speculation that the ruling party was planning to adopt a President’s choice as consensus candidate against throwing the contest open.

The party had shortlisted APC National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba; former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio; Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello; former governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun; Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi and former governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha for the screening.

Others are Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi; Jigawa State governor, Abubakar Badaru; Pastor Tunde Bakare; Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade; former Senate president, Ken Nnamani; former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

Others to be screened are: Former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu; former governor of Zamfara State, Sani Yarima, former Minister of Information, Ikeobasi Mokelu and a female aspirant, Uju Ohanenye; Nicholas Felix; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; Tein Jack-Rich and a few others.

Meanwhile, the aspirants who came down after the screening, including Dave Umahi, Tunde Bakare, Uju Ohanenye, failed to speak to journàlists, as they merely walked away when journàlists approached them for interview.

In another development, former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, also yesterday accompanied Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma to the APC National Secretariat, where they held about four hours closed door meeting with the National chairman of APC, Abdulahi Adamu.

It was reported in the media that Ekweremadu had approached APC to offer him the Enugu State Governorship ticket of the party to enable him contest the 2023 gubernatorial election on its platform, having lost the ticket of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Peter Mbah.

Enugu State chapter of APC had yesterday vowed never to give its ticket to the Enugu West senator, saying he was never part of the party’s primaries in the State, being a PDP member.