Governor of Kano State, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso


• How Tambuwal was prevailed upon to drop out of presidential race
•DSS confirms arrest of suspected cloners of PVCs in APC’s Lagos office
Olawale Olaleye in Lagos and Yemi Akinsuyi in Abuja

With the presidential primary of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) due in a couple
of weeks, the leadership of the party has begun to put finishing touches to an arrangement that would lead to a hitch-free exercise.

Although the Dr. Kayode Fayemi-led Convention Planning Committee is yet to decide on the venue of the exercise, the Northern Caucus of the party has been meeting to initiate moves to prevail on the Governor of Kano State, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, to stand down his presidential bid.

Should Kwankwaso accede to their request, this would leave the stage for former military Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, who realistically is the presumptive presidential candidate of the party, and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Expected to swing into action soon, it was Northern Caucus, THISDAY gathered, that spoke to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, who recently stepped down his bid for the presidency, ostensibly in the larger interest of the party.

Members of the caucus, who met recently in Abuja, include Governor Ibrahim Wamakko of Sokoto State; Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari of Zamfara State; Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno; former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu; former Gombe State Governor, Senator Danjuma Goje; and former Kwara State Governor, Senator Bukola Saraki. The caucus allegedly met with Tambuwal at Saraki’s guest house in Maitama, Abuja.

The APC, THISDAY gathered, has been worried about the likely divisions a hard-fought presidential primary could throw up and is making efforts to contain this, even though it is not certain that it can completely eliminate tensions that could arise in the aftermath of the presidential primary.

Also, the northern caucus is of the view that the younger aspirants in the presidential contest should set aside their ambitions for the more experienced aspirants who with their wealth of experience, popularity and name recognition, stand a better chance of beating President Goodluck Jonathan at the polls.

In this regard, the caucus has met and would probably meet again this week to finalise on a strategy to find a soft landing for Kwankwaso that would encourage him to drop out of the presidential contest.

The goal is for the caucus to meet with Kwankwaso and make him see the need to sacrifice his presidential bid in the interest of the party and ultimately pave the way for a saner contest at the primary.

Whilst a majority of the caucus is convinced that Kwankwaso might actually see reason, there are still concerns that he might not be easy to persuade to drop out of the presidential race because he is serious about his chances and might see the move by the party as tampering with his rights to contest for the highest office in the land.

In a similar fashion, the caucus had told Tambuwal that since age was on his side, he should see the need to let go. But before he was talked out of the presidential race, the caucus was said to have assured him that it had secured the consent of Wamakko to create a level playing field for everyone in the Sokoto governorship contest.

It was Tinubu who allegedly insisted that since Tambuwal had obtained the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms, he should be allowed to run the whole course, in order to have it on the record that he also made sacrifices for the party at such a critical time.

It was against this backdrop that Tambuwal allegedly stood down his presidential bid and resolved to slug it out with other governorship aspirants in Sokoto State.

Thus, if the caucus succeeds in convincing Kwankwaso to join Tambuwal, it would automatically leave the stage for a fierce contest between Buhari and Atiku, albeit with the publisher of the Leadership Newspapers, Sam Nda-Isaiah, featuring on the fringes.

If after the primary election, Buhari makes it through as the APC candidate, the party leadership is already said to be thinking of Buhari’s likely running mate.

Frontrunners for the post include Babatunde Fahsola (SAN) of Lagos State and Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State.

Amaechi, whom the party leadership argued has only the religious advantage over his more popular Lagos State counterpart, could help garner votes both in the South-south and to a lesser extent, the South-east zone, arguing that it would be easier to convince the South-south people on the need to change a non-performing president with a tested vice-president with a good track record.

Curiously, one problem the party leadership is said to have with the Buhari/Amaechi ticket is Tinubu, who they believe is not comfortable with the Rivers State governor.

Sources hinted that since Amaechi confronted Tinubu at a meeting, condemning the idea of a Muslim/Muslim ticket, things have ceased to be smooth between them. They therefore believe that Tinubu might oppose the idea.

Besides the Tinubu factor, Fashola boasts better national and international credentials and as a running mate stands a much better chance of garnering the South-west vote and splitting the Jonathan-Sambo vote in the entire South-south and South-east.

However, as the convention committee prepares the stage for the presidential primary, the choice of venue, which has remained in contention, is to decide whether to hold it in Lagos or Edo State.

The reason the Eagle Square in Abuja has been taken out of consideration stems from the fact that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be holding its convention on the same day and has allocated the space to itself.

Edo, the committee thought, would have been the ideal venue given the fact that it is the zone of the incumbent president. An Edo venue, the committee reckons, would be symbolic politically, but there are concerns that the state does not have the capacity to host over 10,000 people expected to participate at the convention.

This therefore leaves the committee with the option of Lagos, which it believes comes with other advantages – security and the media. With most of the nation’s major media outlets headquartered in Lagos, the committee is of the view that Lagos would be its best bet.

Even then, the decision as to which venue it would settle for, a committee source said, is still subject to ratification by a larger committee, which is yet to meet and endorse the choice of venue.

But the source said plans are in top gear ahead of the convention since time is no longer on APC’s side.

Meanwhile, the Department of State Security (DSS) has confirmed the arrest of suspected cloners who were alleged to have specialised in the cloning of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) voters’ cards with the intention of hacking into the INEC data base, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data.

The suspects were arrested in the same office, which APC acknowledged housed its data processing centre in Lagos.

The department’s spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, in a statement on Sunday, said some of the suspects were arrested and caught with a server, three hard drives, and three jute bags (known in local parlance as Ghana-must-go bags) of hard copy documents.

The statement reads: “A petition was received by the service about some activities at No. 10 Bola Ajibola Street, Off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. The petition alleged that those behind the activities were cloning INEC permanent voters’ cards (PVCs) with the intention of hacking into INEC’s data base, corrupting it, and replacing them with their own data.

“Based on this information, the service placed the building under surveillance and having been convinced that some unwholesome activities were going on in the building, it undertook a raid of the premises.

“In the process, some persons were arrested while a server, three hard drives and three Ghana-must-go bags of hard copy documents were recovered and taken away for further investigation.

“It must be noted that the said location has no signpost indicating whether it was a private or government office.”

tinkinjow:
APC preparing to rig

donphilopus:


Ok... @ Ishilove, Obinoscopy, homepage thread!

dunkem21:
Suspected cloners of PVC materials caught in APC's office?

Na wa o for this fence jumping party.

donphilopus:


Hon. Cheche, PDP, Niger State, was among the people who scaled through the gate. So, get your facts right before making yourself an object of ridicule!

dunkem21:


I laugh in chin chin. But you got your facts right when it was widely alleged that it was Tambuwal and APC members that were locked out while Ihedioha and PDP members were seated and waiting to impeach Tambuwal.
Anyway, Hon. Cheche was the one that assaulted the senate president and he is PDP on name but APC in action just like Tambuwal. He will soon formally decamp to the fence jumping party.

donmalcolm21:
Why should Tambuwal step down because of his age, why isn't Nda Isa considered for the job, why is Tinubu part of the Northern caucus, Why is Rotchas not considered for the post of VP. Until all my WHY's are answered GEJ till 2019

musiwa94:
why should Kwankwaso or Tambuwal step down.

donphilopus:


Nobody is saying that only APC Reps were locked outside, but most of the Reps outside were APC Members. Besides, most of the PDP Members they felt would mount an obstacle to the impeachment attempt on Tambuwal, were locked out. Have you bothered to ask yourself why Ihedioha was allowed in?! Why were most of the Reps visibly angry?! Why were they asking Mark to leave their Chambers?!

Collynzo9:
Where is Rochas Okorocha in all these?
What a confused soul he is, and he was expecting Igbos to follow him blindly in his foolishness.
He will be kicked out if he dares to contest for 2nd term in Imo

dunkem21:


Now, stop twisting this. Ihedioha came earlier than Tambuwal, was screened and allowed into the chambers; so with other APC members. Tambuwal came in with a crowd; thugs, colleagues and well wishers and refused to be screened. Cheche came with Tambuwal and the group broke the cordon. Didn't you see where Tambuwal's driver wanted to overrun a policeman.
I am taking my time to prove to you beyond all reasonable doubts that APC is a fence jumping party.

donphilopus:


Bros, let's assume so. However, is it now a crime to go into the National Assembly environment with your colleagues?! When I watched it, I didn't see any thug with Tambuwal. If at all he went with thugs, then there's nothing bad in it because that's how the Presidency wants it. You can't expect the No. 4 Citizen without his Security Aides to move alone in Abuja. If it were you, would you move alone?!

Forget about the crowd ish sir. Even if Tambuwal had gone alone, he would have still been prevented from going in. That was the order from above. When last were Security Personnels deployed to the National Assembly in their numbers?! Why were they tear-gassed?! If at all he came with crowd, why were they not told to wait outside and let the Speaker and his Colleagues in?! All they were trynna do was to impeach him. Period!