- * Says He's Ready For The Contest, Expresses Optimism He Would Emerge As Chairman At The Convention
By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-Chief) @CeleOkaf11
A top contender in the race for the position of national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Adamu Abdullahi, has expressed great optimism that he would eventually emerge as the new helmsman of the APC at the Saturday March 26th National convention.
Senator Abdullahi also said that he will not condescend to fight dirty with co-aspirants some of who, he said, were out to tarnish his image for reasons of his perceived bright chances of emerging as national chairman of APC at the Convention.
Senator Adamu Abdullahi, a former first civilian governor of Nasarawa state between 1999 and 2007, and currently the Senator representing Nasarawa West Senatorial district, was reacting to rumours, mid-week, that he had dropped out of the APC chairmanship race which was why he did not appear at the general screening of aspirants on Tuesday night at the party headquarters, Abuja.
Speaking at an interactive session with a select media editors and publishers including NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Newspaper in his Asokoro, Abuja residence on Wednesday evening, Senator Adamu Abdullahi said that contrary to what he described as sponsored rumor to tarnish him and erode the confidence of party delegates and the general public on his aspiration, he never dropped out of the race and neither was his candidature rejected or was maneuvered out of the contest.
Senator. Adamu Abdullahi During His Interview
He maintains that he is still in the race for the APC top job and would so remain until the last minute of the Convention contest. Senator Adamu Abdullahi said the rumour was spinned by some mischievous elements who were out to blackmail him and tarnish his image.
He explained that though information was not passed to him through the right channel and in good time, he therefore was unaware of the Tuesday night general screening, even though he travelled to lagos that day on an important public project meeting initiated by Dangote Group, he said.
Senator Adamu Abdullahi however revealed that he was eventually screened by the party's screening committee along with a few others on Wednesday noon which qualifies him to participate in the weekend Convention for the party leadership election. “I went for the screening. There were other people waiting to be screened when I got there. But to my shock, I later read in the social media that I didn’t do the screening.
“There were those that said that the endorsement had been taken off. It is a fallacy, but I don’t believe in shouting. These are just creations of people who have negative attitude to life and who do not believe in positivity. They believe in blackmail to get what they want. I’m very lucky and thank God that I don’t belong to that stock. It is not in my attitude. It is not in my character. I face the reality of my situation and this situation is not going to be an exception", the lawmaker stated.
Senator Adamu Abdullahi who is both an Engineer and a lawyer as well as the Senate Committee chairman on Agriculture, however, expressed great displeasure over what he viewed as a campaign of blackmail and calumny targeted against him by those he did not mention, saying they have no basis to qery the legality of his membership of the APC, having defected earlier from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling APC.
He maintains that he is a bonafide member of the party and therefore has the right like every qualified member of the party to contest for the national chairmanship of the APC. Senator Abdullahi claimed that he had quit the membership of the PDP quite on time and joined the APC at its formative stage.
Among the large number of chairmanship aspirants in the party, Senator Adamu Abdullahi is said to be the "annointed" consensus candidate for the position of National Chairman in what is being touted a the "unity list" of those to be elected at the convention to run the affairs of the APC at the various levels.
Speaking with confidence and great elation, he told the media editors during the exclusive interaction, that from the look of things at the Saturday's Convention, there might not be a delegate election into the office of national chairman of the APC at the Eagle Square Abuja since the party will very likely to go by its predetermined consensus arrangement.
Senator Abdullahi hinged his argument on the fact that there is an existing precedence in the party already in respect of consensus approach to election of the party officers at the various levels in previous national conventions. He stated that the weekend Convention would end up producing acceptable consensus candidates.
Adamu pointed out that right from the time of Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, down to Adams Oshiomhole, the APC had always gone for a consensus candidate to chair the party. He said this convention might not be different. NNL.
