The All Progressives Congress, APC, has concluded its 3rd national convention held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos State, with a former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), elected as presidential candidate of the opposition party.
Buhari, who at the time of publishing this report, is giving his acceptance speech, defeated four other aspirants to clinch the presidential ticket by polling 3,430 votes.
Kano State Governor, Engr. Musa Rabi’u Kwankwaso surprisingly emerged first runner up with 974 votes while a former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, was the second runner up with 954 votes.
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State came fourth with 624 votes while the Publisher of Leadership Newspapers, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, came a distant fifth with only 10 votes.
Sixteen votes were considered invalid and were therefore voided.
A total of 7,214 delegates were accredited to vote at the convention attended by the leaders of the opposition party.
With his victory, Mr. Buhari, 72, who was Nigeria’s military leader between December 31, 1983 and August 27, 1985 will now square up against President Goodluck Jonathan, whose adoption was ratified by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at its special convention in the early hours of Thursday, in the February 14 presidential election.
It would also be the fourth time the former military ruler will be running for the highest office in the land. He lost in all three previous electoral contests amid allegations of rigging by the ruling PDP.