Former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi received 316 votes in the party’s first presidential election in Abuja.
This is according to Deputy President Yemi Osinbajo voting for 235 votes.
For his part, Senate President Ahmed Lawan received 101 votes.
The party’s national leader, Bola Tinubu, received the highest number of votes.
The winner is expected to be announced within a few hours.
The 14 candidates for the race are Chukwuemeka Nwajuba, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Ahmed Rufai, Senator Rochas Okorocha, Mr Jack Rich, Governor Ben Ayade, Gov. David Umuahi, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Senator Ahmed Yarima, Dr Ahmed Lawal, Vice-President. Yemi Osinbajo, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Governor Yahaya Bello and Mr Ogbonnaya Onu.
The nine previous candidates withdrew from the race, including Ms Uju Kennedy-Ohnenye, Dr Felix Nicholas, former Governor Godswill Akpabio, former Governor Ibikunle Amosun, former Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Seni Ajayi Boroffice, Governor Muhammad Badaru. Ken Nnamani and Governor Kayode Fayemi.
However, the Special Adviser to the President for Political Affairs, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, congratulated Deputy President Yemi Osinbajo as the counting continued.
“PYO has been my hero all my life. Congratulations to everyone who has been a part of this movement. God bless you all and may we trade our nation as others did yesterday, ”Ojodu said.
A total of 2,260 delegates from the All Progressives Congress voted at the party’s ongoing Presidential Primary in Eagle Square, Abuja.
The total number of provinces and their authorized delegates is as follows:
Abijah – 50; Adamawa- 62; Anambra- 63; Bayelsa- 24; Bauchi – 55; Benue- 64; Borno- 81; Cross River- 54; Delta- 73; Enugu- 51; Ekiti- 48; Edo- 54; Ebonyi- 38; FCT-80.
Some in Gombe- 33; Imo-81; Jigawa- 81; Lagos – 60; Plains – 51; Katsina- 102; Kebbi- 63; Kwara- 48; Kogi- 63; Kaduna- 61; Kano- 126; Nasarawa- 39; Niger – 75; Ondo- 54; Ogun – 60; Oyo- 99; Osun- 90; Rivers- 69; Sokoto- 69; Taraba- 46; Job- 51 and Zamfara- 42.
PUNCH has reported that elected members of the APC have joined forces to elect a candidate for next year’s election to replace the current President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
They will nominate a candidate for the 75-year-old Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party among others in the February 25 presidential election.
Buhari, who stepped down after two constitutional clauses, arrived at the Eagle Square convention center just before voting began.
The Nigerian leader has spent days leading up to the meeting in consultation with APC leaders seeking unity for the candidate.
“The party’s fate depends on what we do here,” said APC party chairman Abdullah Adamu, echoing Buhari’s call for unity in the ranks.
“We will not go to the national elections next year without assembling our house.”
Part of the APC’s dispute over the electorate is related to “design” – an illegal agreement between political officials that the Nigerian president should rotate between those from the southern Christian majority and those from the northern Muslim mainland.
After north of Buhari, observers were expecting the presidency to go to the polls from the south.
But the PDP – which held the primary on May 28 and 29 – elected Abubakar, a former vice president and Muslim northern political activist.
Opposition nominations to ignore “design” have led the APC to reconsider how the candidate will look to the north, where voter turnout and participation are traditionally high.
Buhari, who is the leader of the ruling party, never announced his support for any candidate and ordered APC members to “let the delegates decide.”
“Our aim should be to win our party and our choice of candidate should be someone who will give the people of Nigeria a sense of victory and confidence even before the election,” he said last week.
Security was tight in central Abuja early Tuesday and roads were closed as hundreds of APC supporters dressed in green, white and red party rallies gathered inside and near the venue.
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