The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said other members of the party are free to contest the presidential primary with President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 election.
APC National Organising Secretary, Sulaiman Argungu, stated this on Wednesday during an interactive session with journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
Argungu said the endorsement of Tinubu by the party’s leadership, including the National Working Committee (NWC), the Progressives Governors Forum led by Hope Uzodinma, and the national assembly leadership under Godswill Akpabio, was in recognition of the president’s performance.
The APC national organising secretary, however, said the party will not shut out other aspirants from the presidential primary.
“We will definitely not close our doors (other presidential aspirants). When the time comes, our timetable will be made known,” Argungu said.
“Anybody who wants to aspire for the presidency under the APC will not be denied the opportunity to purchase the expression of interest and nomination forms to exercise their franchise.
“We never said we had locked the door. We are only telling people that we appreciate what the president is doing for the people of the country and that he deserves a second term in office when we roundly endorsed him recently.”
He stressed that the APC is different from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), “printed just one form for Goodluck Jonathan as the sole presidential aspirant in 2014”.
On the party’s performance in the recent by-elections, Argungu said winning 13 out of 16 contested seats was evidence of the confidence Nigerians repose in the APC.