VP probables and possibles: L-R, Amaechi, Oshiomhole, Fashola, Fayemi, Osibajo and Olagunsoye Oyinlola
Speculations are rife about the vice-presidential pick for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari.
But the party’s spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the party has not even met to decide who the person will be.
“We haven’t even met,” Mohammed said, dismissing a report that the party had picked the Rivers States Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, as Buhari’s running mate.
Mohammed told The Punch newspaper that picking a vice-presidential candidate would require wide consultation, but said the party would announce the person next week.
“What you are reading now is the handiwork of mischief makers. No one had been picked as Buhari’s running mate but we will pick and announce next week,” he said.
TheNEWS can confirm that the National leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would have a great influence on the choice. And sources closes to him said he has been locked up in wide consultation on finding a right running mate that will Buhari’s electoral chances in the February election.
“There is no VP candidate yet”, said a source close to Tinubu, on phone Friday night.
Among the possible choices are the Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi and former attorney-general of Lagos State, Professor Yemi Osibajo.
Religion will be a very decisive factor in arriving at a choice, TheNEWS learnt. And since Buhari is a muslim, only a Christian VP will emerge.
Osibajo was Tinubu’s choice for the position in 2011, when the defunct Action Congress was in alliance talks with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change. But the talks collapsed and Buhari instead picked the Lagos cleric, Pastor Tunde Bakare,a combination that failed to win votes in western Nigeria.