Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose on Thursday, March 12, 2015 said that the tactical withdrawal of support for the presidential ambition of General Muhammadu Buhari by Northern All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders – including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwakwanso – was proof that the APC had lost the battle for Aso Rock.
Speaking via a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, Governor Fayose said the Northern leaders made the U-turn after the realised General Buhari would be made to shortchange the North by his deceitful Southern backers.
Governor Fayose also stated that General Buhari’s health status had contributed to the waning support he was getting from the North as they Northern leaders still had the matter of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in their minds, with the former Head of State’s inability to hold scheduled rallies in Enugu and Kaduna States.
The statement read: “We thank the APC for conceding defeat in the coming elections. At east, they, for the first time, appear realistic. Buhari’s insistence that he must be allowed to attend to his health is commendable.
“It is glaring that he needs to rest and not waste energy on a failed project. The man has been abandoned by those who claim to be his backers and Buhari’s people have told him the bitter truth. That they would prefer to wait for another four years than to get trapped by some selfish South-west leaders for eight years.
“The preoccupation of the APC now is how to retain the APC- controlled states and prevent the PDP from capturing them.
“The tactical withdrawal of people like Atiku, Kwakwanso and the battle for survival by Tinubu and Amaechi in Lagos and Rivers have woken up Buhari to the politics of deceit that some are luring him to.
“While PDP leaders are confidently traversing the country meeting Nigerians and getting their support, APC leaders are held up in their hideouts. Who among them is canvassing support for Buhari now?
“Tinubu, for instance, is only pre-occupied with his aim of maintaining his stranglehold on Lagos’ resources by putting another stooge in the Government House, Ikeja, but this time around, he has failed woefully.”
