Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and his Ondo State counterpart, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Wednesday visited the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the visit of the two governors, who headed straight to the president’s office, may not be unconnected with the outcome of the All Progressives Congress primaries and screening exercise conducted by the party’s headquarters.
Sen. Shehu Sani, was the only aspirant cleared by the national headquarters of the APC to contest for the Kaduna Central Senatorial seat against the wish of the state governor, El-Rufai.
Prior to Sani’s clearance, the governor had endorsed his Political Adviser, Uba Sani, as sole candidate of the APC for the senatorial seat.
The governor had also insisted that party primary be held to determine the party’s flag-bearer in the 2019 Senatorial poll instead of the automatic endorsement of incumbent senator by the party headquarters.
NAN learnt that El-Rufai’s preferred candidate for the senatorial seat, Uba Sani, had since gone to court to stop Shehu Sani’s automatic endorsement by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.
The APC Senate screening committee also cleared Sen. Ajayi Borrofice, as sole aspirant for Ondo North Senatorial seat against the wish of the state governor, who had wanted to dislodge him through a primary.
The national leadership of the party had earlier announced that senators who were loyal would be rewarded with automatic tickets.
Supporters of Shehu Sani had in a statement issued journalists in Kaduna applauded the national party leadership for the decision.
The outcome of the governors’ visit to villa was still unknown as of the time of filing this report as no statement or confirmation on whether the governors were able to meet with the president or not.
