Former President Goodluck Jonathan, touted as a likely consensus candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), is not on the list of presidential aspirants to be screened to contest in the party’s presidential primary slated for June 6 to 8.
Ex-APC chair John Odigie-Oyegun leads the screening committee.
Mr Jonathan had on May 9 rejected the presidential expression of interest and nomination forms of the APC bought for him by a Fulani group.
Citing a credible source in Mr Jonathan’s camp, state-run newswire, News Agency of Nigeria, reported that the former president had finally made up his mind to vie for the top post he lost to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Although 28 presidential aspirants bought the APC presidential nomination forms, only 23 were listed for screening, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Senate President Ahmad Lawan.
Apart from Mr Jonathan’s name missing on the screening list, the names of the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, and the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige and Minister of State, Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, were also omitted.
Mr Emefiele had faced backlash over his involvement in partisan politics, with critics calling for his immediate sack of the apex bank’s governor.
Meanwhile, 11 other aspirants were screened by the committee, including Bola Tinubu, former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Governor Abubakar Badaru.
Others are Governor Dave Umahi, Tunde Bakare, general overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, former junior education minister Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba and Uju Ken-Ohanenye (APC’s only female presidential aspirant).
The rest are Ajayi Boroffice, Felix Nicholas, former Senate President Ken Nnamani, ex-Governors Ibikunle Amosu, Sani Ahmed and Rochas Okorocha.
Until today, it was uncertain if Mr Okorocha could attend his screening, but he got a reprieve from the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, which admitted him to N500 million bail with one surety. His presidential screening is slated for Tuesday (today).
On Monday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Rochas Okorocha and others on allegations bordering on money laundering.
(NAN)
