APC Campaign: We Foresee No Rerun in Presidential Poll
•Adeyemi: It’s a straight battle between Tinubu, Obi
•Picks N50m Kogi governorship form
•Ex-Lagos governor will win at first ballot, south-south group boasts
Adedayo Akinwale, Sunday Aborisade in Abuja and Sylvester Idowu in Warri
The Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said it did not see a rerun in the presidential election, because its candidate, Bola Tinubu, was poised to win the presidential election on the first ballot.
This is as the senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi has said Saturday’s presidential election would be a straight fight between Tinubu and the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Adeyemi stated this yesterday in Abuja while addressing journalists after picking the governorship form for Kogi for N50,000,000.
At the same time, the South South Movement for Tinubu/Shettima Ticket (SSMTS), a pro-APC group, has boasted that Tinubu and his running mate, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, would win this Saturday elections on first ballot.
The Director, Diaspora Directorate of the APC PCC, Ade Omole, while addressing a press conference in Abuja yesterday, said he strongly believed that by 6p.m on Saturday, they would have started jubilating over the victory of Tinubu.
Omole said out of about 1.6 million Nigerians in diaspora that have voter cards, about one million were already in the country to vote Tinubu.
His words: “I strongly believe that by 6p.m on Saturday, the 25th of February, we will be celebrating the election. Remember we can actually view the result in real time online, Yes! INEC may still take their time, because they have to do the collation obviously officially, but I strongly believe that this election would be done and dusted by 6pm.
“Why do I say that? Like I mentioned earlier, you need to see the feedback from the people. We were at the flag-off in Jos, I was in Kano, I was in Minna, I was in Borno, you need to see the response from Nigerians. They just can’t wait. I don’t see any run-off in this election and I believe that by 6pm, we will be done and dusted.”
He noted that Tinubu was head and shoulder above any other presidential candidate, and that Nigerians had actually responded well, while expressing optimism that they would come out en masse to vote for the former Lagos State governor.
His words: “Not all the all 1.6 millions Nigerians in diaspora with PVCs would surely come in but at least some of them are here and they are all voting for our principal, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Probably on Monday, we would be back here and I’m going to refer to this day that I said that we will be done by 6p.m.”
On his part, Adeyemi stressed that he was supporting Tinubu and Shettima not because they were APC members but because of their past records and also due to contemporary issues in Nigeria.
The lawmaker commended the Northern Governors for supporting the power shift to the South.
He alleged that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, had a hand in the emergence of the Governor of Delta State, Dr. IfeanyI Okowa as the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
“Are you aware that Emefiele aspired for the presidency? When he lost out, he felt he had put in so much money in politics. So, he wanted a cover and so, he brought his cousin, Governor Okowa to come and contest the election and he bankrolled them,” he said.
Adeyemi said the naira redesign policy was a calculated attempt to ridicule the APC government and manipulate the people to vote for the PDP but that Nigerians were wiser today.
Also, speaking on their support for Tinubu, SSMTS maintained that the APC presidential candidate and running mate had campaigned vigorously across the country and that the response of the voters indicated that they would win massively.
National Coordinator of the group, Samuel Besidone Eyengho, at a press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) press centre, Warri, said aside the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, all the support groups including SSMTS had campaigned and got the assurances of the voters in the all important election coming up this Saturday.
