The Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun was on Monday in the Presidential Villa, Abuja in the company of the National Chairman of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle to formally present a letter from the APM to President Muhammadu Buhari, adopting him as the party’s presidential candidate.
Governor Amosun made the formal presentation of the adoption letter amid threats by the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to expel him from the ruling party.
Recall that Amosun and the APC at the national levels are on the warpath over the choice of a candidate other than his, as the party’s governorship ticket holder for the 2019 polls.
His preferred candidate and member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Adekunle Akinlade, has since defected from the APC to the APM to become the latter’s governorship candidate.
Many loyalists and aides of the governor also exited the APC, though the governor still holds on to his own APC membership card.
Speaking with State House correspondents after emerging from the meeting with Buhari, Amosun said he merely kept a promise he earlier made to bring the adoption letter to the President personally.
The governor said, “You will recall that just last week, we made public that the APM had adopted President Buhari as the presidential candidate.
“I had promised to bring the letter they (APM) had given me to present to him and that is what we came to do today. And you know Mr. President is a very gracious human being; he is a man with a good heart.
“He said if a party has adopted him, it is only fair he acknowledges the party and the chairman. That is why we are here.
“I have said that anybody that is for President Muhammadu Buhari is for me. We will embrace such a party, such persons, such an organisation wholeheartedly, and that is what I am doing and that is what we are doing in Ogun State.
“Clearly, Mr. President will have massive votes in Ogun State in the coming election.”
When he was asked to react to Oshiomhole’s expulsion threats, Amosun said his mission to the Villa was not to discuss Oshiomhole.
He said, “I don’t want to comment on that. We came for this (adoption letter). Let us restrict ourselves to this. I want my President to win. What else do you want? We must win, that is it!”
Also speaking, Yusuf- Dantalle claimed that the APM took the decision to adopt Buhari because the party members believed in him to continue to lead the country.
“Personally, I believe in him and the reason being that I love my country and I don’t have any other country apart from Nigeria. And Buhari is the only man with the sincerity of intent to take Nigeria to the next level.
“This is not the Nigeria I was born into but I see that Nigeria is coming back only through Buhari,” he said.
, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle to formally present a letter from the APM to President Muhammadu Buhari, adopting him as the party’s presidential candidate.){kind=link}