2015: I’ve not picked Tinubu as running mate – Buhari

The Custodian April 13, 2014

Former presidential candidate and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, retired General Muhammadu Buhari has denied media reports that he has picked former Lagos state Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as running mate for the 2015 presidential race.

Recently, the media was awash with the news that the opposItion party has decided to settle for a Muslim/Muslim ticket ahead of the 2015 elections.

 However, while reacting through his media aide, Malam Ya’u Darazau, the party leader said APC had no plan of picking Tinubu as a running mate to General Buhari in the 2015 presidential election.

According to him, the former leader has not made up his mind on the 2015 contest.

He said: “Those who will be presidential and vice-presidential flag bearers will be named during the party’s convention. It is untrue that the General will have Tinubu as his running mate in the 2015 elections and the matter hasn’t even been discussed.

The General and, indeed, other party leaders are trying to unite the party now and ensure the success of the congresses. We don’t know where and how the rumour emerged because convention has to be conducted before presidential candidate and his running mate is chosen and this has not yet been done,” he said.

Also reacting to the story, national publicity secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, and chieftain of the APC, Osita Okechukwu accused the PDP of formulating the rumour.

Okechukwu said, “The context emanates from the truism that the registration of APC on 31 July 2013, an outcome of the first consummation of merger of major political parties in the annals of our political history, has set the stage to propel our fledgling democracy to the zenith of liberal democracy.

“Naturally, pundits and minders of the PDP are speculating and making all manner of permutations on the ticket of the APC, especially when the party draws large followership from the two prominent electoral zones – North West and South West,” he said.