Buhari Says He Will Campaign For All APC Candidates

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, says he will campaign for the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) and all its candidates.

BigPen Online learnt that the president spoke on backdrop of discrepancy in Ogun State where Governor Ibikunle Amosun is supporting Allied Peoples Movement (APM), governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, against Dapo Abiodun, who emerged as the APC governorship candidate for the forthcoming governorship election.

The Presidency says the clarification became necessary following repeated media enquiries on the matter, saying in clear and unmistakable terms that as a party leader and a candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the coming elections, Buhari will campaign for all candidate of the party.

This however does not mean that he, as the nation’s leader, will decline courtesy calls or offers of support from citizens including candidates flying the flags of other parties, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity said in a statement obtained by BigPen Online.

“There is no doubt that the President has no competition here in terms of popularity in the coming elections. But the more support he gets, the wider the margin of victory there will be.

“So please let there be no confusion about this. President Buhari is APC.

He will campaign for all APC candidates, but he welcomes support and endorsements”, the statement added.

Meanwhile, following the intrigues over who becomes the next governor of Ogun state continue, President Muhammadu Buhari, Sunday met behind closed doors with Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the Ogun State governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Adekunle Akinlade, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Ogun state governor, Amosun, has been having running battles with the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, under the control of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole over succession issue.

Before moving to APM, Adekunle Akinlade was governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but lost to the preferred aspirant by the national body of the party, Dapo Abiodun, who eventually emerged as the APC governorship candidate for Ogun State.

Vanguard had reported that governor Amosun had on the 24th December, 2018 led the National Chairman of APM, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle to the Presidential Villa to submit a letter adopting Buhari as the party’s presidential candidate.

Speaking with State House correspondents after submitting the letter to Buhari, Amosun flanked by the APM national Chairman, had said, “You will recall that just last week we made public that APM has adopted President Buhari as their presidential candidate.

“I had promised to bring the letter they had given me to present to him and that is what we came to do today. And you know Mr. President is a very gracious human being, he is a man with a good heart”.

He said if a party had adopted the President in the February 16 presidential election, it was only fair he (Bihari) acknowledged the party and the chairman.

He further said, “I have said that anybody that is for President Muhammadu Buhari is for me, we will embrace such party, such persons, such organization wholeheartedly and that is what I am doing and that is what we are doing in Ogun State.

“Clearly, Mr. President will have a massive vote in Ogun State in the coming election.” But four days after the Amosun, precisely on 28th December last year, a former governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba in apparent move to counter the outgoing governor also led the governorship candidate of APC, Dapo Abiodun to President Buhari at the Villa in Abuja. After the meeting, pictures of the President lifting the hand of Dapo Abiodun, immediately hit the social media.

Speaking with State House correspondents, Osoba said: “We have come to present our candidate in Ogun state; the candidate of the president; the candidate of APC and the president has raised his hand and told the world that his candidate in Ogun state is Prince Dapo Abiodun and that he has no other candidate, his party in Ogun state is APC, he has no other party in Nigeria other than APC.

“He has assured us that he will personally come to Ogun state to formally present Prince Dapo Abiodun as his candidate and he assured us that is clearing the air of any ambiguity whatsoever of any name dropping, any blackmail, any misinformation that anybody may be peddling, that all elections throughout Nigeria, not just in Ogun state people must vote for APC and no other party.”