APC presidential candidates sign undertaking not to defect after December 10 primary

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has made its presidential aspirants sign an undertaking to remain loyal to the party if any of them fails to get the party’s presidential tick‎et, Ogbonnaya Onu, chairman of the party’s presidential screening committee, disclosed on Wednesday.

At the APC secretariat in Abuja, Onu said all the party’s presidential candidates screened on Tuesday scored above average, which qualified them to be the standard bearer of the party.

“Yesterday, for several hours, the presidential screening committee met with five distinguished Nigerians seeking the nomination of the party to contest for the position of president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Onu said.

“During that exercise, we found that these men are so distinguished that there is not one of them that will not make a great difference for our nation.

“‎The goal of the party is to control government at the national level so that the problems of our country will be solved. During the screening exercise yesterday, we took the presidential aspirants through a rigorous process. We also tested their understanding of the problems of this nation.

“We believe whoever will fly our flag will have an understanding of the problems of Nigeria. The score was very narrow‎ and very high. The least scored 62 per cent and the highest scored 78 per cent.”

According to Onu, all five presidential aspirants of the party‎ – Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Rochas Okorocha, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Sam Nda-Isaiah – all agreed and signed the “letter of commitment”, pledging their loyalty to the party.

‎The letter of commitment read in part: “I do hereby undertake to abide by the rules and regulations of the All Progressives Congress nomination guidelines, the APC constitution, the electoral act and the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

“I, on behalf of myself and my primary campaign organisation, undertake to accept the outcome of the primaries and actively support whoever emerges as the winner and shall not decamp to any political party or in any way obstruct the smooth prosecution of the presidential campaigns.”

Speaking on behalf of other APC presidential aspirants, Muhammadu Buhari said: ” We we‎nt through the mill yesterday, but I am grateful we all made it. The secretary has read the letter which we were made to sign to make sure that our loyalty to the party is supreme.”

‎Onu called on Nigerians to give the APC a chance to solve the problems of the country.