APC primary: Delegates to elect presidential candidate Tuesday

The voting exercise at the presidential primary of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has been scheduled to hold on Tuesday, June 7.

The date was listed in a programme of events for the special convention seen by TheCable on Saturday.

According to the programme, the primary election activities are billed to commence with speeches from all the presidential hopefuls.

A “special remark” from President Muhammadu Buhari follows before the election begins in earnest at 6pm.

Three hours later, at 9pm, the counting and collation of votes are expected to start, which will culminate in the announcement of the winner and the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election.

The primary election holds just two days before the June 9 deadline by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the submission of the list of candidates by political parties.

APC had earlier fixed the presidential primary for May 30/31 but it was shifted to hold between June 6 and 8 following the extension of INEC’s deadline.

Twenty-three aspirants bought the party’s N100 million presidential nomination form, but 13 hopefuls were shortlisted by the screening committee headed by John Oyegun, a former APC national chairman.

TheCable had reported that aspirants who made the cut include Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation; Ahmad Lawan, senate president; Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi; Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti, and Emeka Nwajiuba, former minister of state for education.

Others are Ogbonnaya Onu, former minister of science and technology; Ibikunle Amosun, former governor of Ogun; David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi, Muhammad Badaru, governor of Jigawa; Godswill Akpabio, former governor of Akwa Ibom; and Tein Jack-Rich, an oil magnate.