National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has said that the party chose a ‘placeholder’ vice presidential candidate after “careful” legal consultations.
Adamu, who accompanied Ekiti governor-elect, Biodun Oyebanji to meet President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, spoke with State House correspondents afterward.
Director of Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, had confirmed that Alhaji Ibrahim Kabiru Masari was chosen as running mate to presidential candidate of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The party has yet to confirm whether Masari is a “placeholder” VP candidate or not, although there are speculations that Masari could refuse to step down if he is indeed a surrogate.
Addressing the speculations, Adamu said that the party was “cocksure” that such a situation would not arise.
“We are not in the speculative world. We are governed by the laws of the land. There’s nothing our presidential candidate has done with regards to returning his forms that is not within the confines of the law of the land.
“Everything we’ve done so far, we have done very carefully with legal consultation and we are cocksure, we’re not going to have the kind of speculation that you are professing at this point in time.
“We’re very comfortable with what we have done. It is still pessimism. However, not in that school of thought yet. We don’t have to be there,” the APC boss said.
On reported vote-buying in the just-concluded Ekiti gubernatorial election, Adamu appealed to the media not to compromise the integrity of polls in the country.
“I just want to add a word or two in the response of our governor-elect on the issue of vote buying. As a patriotic Nigerian that is privileged to lead the ruling party in this country today, I want to only appeal to the media. Please don’t partake in portraying negative attitudes in our processes.
“If you do so, you are compromising. I’m sorry to say so. You’re compromising the integrity of our process as a country,” he said.