Member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Progressives Congress from Abia State, Ochiagha Apugo, has adduced reasons for not supporting the 2023 presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu, despite being a party chieftain.
Bellnewsonline.com reports that Tinubu had, in June this year, emerged as the APC’s presidential flag bearer.
The former Lagos State governor scored 1,271 votes to defeat his closest contenders, Rotimi Amaechi, who pulled 316 votes and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who scored 235 votes.
However, Ochiagha Apugo BoT, while addressing a cross-section of journalists at the Nkata Ibeku country home in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State recently, maintained that he was not aware of Tinubu’s presidential bid as he was neither informed nor consulted by the ex-Lagos governor before or during the concluded presidential primary election conducted by the party leadership.
“I don’t know him as a presidential candidate of APC. I am on the same level as him in APC.
“Tinubu has not talked to me, how do I support someone whom I don’t know his political ambition. And nobody has come to say Tinubu sent him to see me”.
On the Muslim-Muslim tickets fielded by the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 presidential elections, Apugo BoT opined that Nigerians are yearning for competent, and responsive leadership at all levels of the country, insisting that the party’s decision in fielding a presidential candidate and running-mate of the Muslim backgrounds would not in any way affect his personal choice of presidential candidate and his decision not to support or vote the presidential candidate of the APC.
His words: “I told you earlier that I don’t know Tinubu. He hasn’t come to me, so anything that he does, doesn’t in any way affect my decision about him or about me not knowing him.
On the rumours that he’s backing Labour Party in the forthcoming 2023 general election in the country, Apugo BoT ruled out supporting candidates based on political party affiliation, reiterating that he would throw his weight behind competent candidates and not on party affiliation as done before.
His words: “Let us not be sentimental about Peter Obi being an Igbo man, that’s sentimental. We are going to vote for the right person.
“I will vote the right person, I won’t be sentimental about Peter Obi. Whether he is an Hausa man and I decide to vote for him, I will vote for him.
“Let’s stop talking about Peter Obi being an Igbo man. From what you have been seeing, is it only the Igbo people that are supporting Peter Obi?
“We’re not supporting Peter Obi, because he’s an Igbo man; we are talking about the right people to be elected into leadership positions of the country.
“Let me tell you what this Peter Obi thing has done for the Igbo man. It has wiped out Biafra”.