Ministers who resigned their positions to contest the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary may have distanced themselves from the eventual winner, Aiswaju Bola Tinubu and from further participation in party activities after failing to get the party’s ticket.
The affected persons: former Minister for Transportation, Rt Hon. Rotimi Amaechi; former Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio; and former Minister of State for Education, Chief Emeka Nwajiuba, have noted that they were not being treated fairly since their participation in the primary.
Checks by THE QUEST TIMES show that the politicians have not actively participated in APC-related activities after the conclusion of the primary in July.
Over 20 aspirants contested the APC primary with Tinubu emerging victorious.
QUEST TIMES observed that most of these former ministers who served under President Muhammadu Buhari, have largely gone silent over their support for the APC presidential candidate in 2023.
Also, most of them have not appeared at any function relating to the APC presidential campaign.
While most of them are distancing themselves from Tinubu, one of the Ministers reportedly said some APC delegates, who voted at the special convention of the APC, were regretting their decisions after being induced with money at the convention.
Sources at the party secretariat said that Amaechi’s grouse was the open romance of the APC candidate with his fierce rival and Governor of Rivers state, Nyesome Wike. The former minister appears displeased with the meetings between some APC Governors – Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), and Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) meeting with Wike.
Checks by QUEST TIMES suggest that the meetings with Wike were without the former Minister’s consent.
Dr. Onu is reportedly displeased over the party’s decision not to zone the presidential ticket to the South-East. Chief Nwajiuba, who stayed away from the convention in protest against what he tagged injustice, filed a suit at the Federal High Court seeking the disqualification of Tinubu and the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, from the 2023 election.