TheCable

Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says President Muhammadu Buhari cannot get an automatic ticket for the 2019 election.

Tinubu made the statement less than 24 hours after Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo state, said 34 governors had endorsed Buhari for a second term.

Speaking in Akure, capital of Ondo state, on Wednesday, Tinubu said “governors cannot appropriate the power of endorsement to themselves”.

The APC leader maintained that leadership of the APC had not endorsed Buhari as its sole candidate for 2019.

He added that the flagbearer of the ruling party in the 2019 presidential election would emerge through a democratic process.

“Buhari is a believer in the process. He believes in the rule of law. We wanted him even before the last convention and primary of the party,” he said.

“We followed all the constitutional provision and an individual or group’s opinion does not really matter at this stage, Buhari will want a normal process.

“Buhari that, I know, who says he will lose at any convention? But if the national body, the national executive committee and all of us as members endorsed him as our single candidate, we will not be violating INEC regulations, we will not be violating our party constitution.

“What you are hearing is just a campaign by other people who might like to do so.”

Last month when he visited the presidential villa in Abuja, Tinubu told journalists not to discuss Buhari’s second term with him.

Although Buhari has not disclosed his intention about 2019, his supporters have started rolling out the drums.