Powerbrokers in the All Progressives Congress and the Presidency are considering pairing a former Governor of Ogun State and serving senator, Ibikunle Amosun, to run as Vice-President with the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, as the President to succeed Muhammadu Buhari ahead of 2023.
It was learnt that apart from both Amosun and Malami being strong allies of President Buhari, the party hopes to play the card of their being relatively young before Nigerians.
Top sources in the APC stated that by the party’s membership revalidation exercise which will end on March 31 and the ongoing probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the cabal believed that it had weakened the influence of former Lagos State Governor and APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu.
“Ibikunle Amosun has been pencilled down as Malami’s running mate under our party. APC validation exercise is near completion and it effectively takes away the party finally from Tinubu. His game in the APC is undone as the EFCC is set to hunt him down.
“Talks about zoning to the South are presently being reconsidered among the governors. You recall Kogi State Governor Bello saying over the weekend that there was nothing like zoning in the APC constitution. Gradually, they (the governors) will make the zoning talk unpopular,” a source revealed.
Sahara Reporters had reported on March 1 that Malami had begun moves to also take a shot at the 2023 presidency, a bid which he plans to heavily fund through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under the new chairmanship.
Malami, who has now added the EFCC to his milking cows, had shelved his earlier ambition of contesting the Kebbi State governorship election and is rather eyeing the Presidency.
“The AGF has upgraded to a presidential campaign. He has abandoned the Kebbi State governorship ambition. He said he is too big to contest for governor, having made so much money under the Buhari administration.
“He has been minister for eight years and now he is in charge of the EFCC after putting Bawa, his boy. He was desperate to take over the anti-graft agency so that he could make more money and determine candidates for the 2023 elections,” a source close to Malami had revealed.
Malami had been instrumental in the manner the former acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, was sacked from office, after having years of discord with Magu.
As part of his grand plot to achieve his 2023 ambition, the AGF had also fought to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Bawa, despite detailed investigations indicting the 40-year-old of fraudulent acts.
SaharaReporters had two weeks ago reported that a 13-page investigation report by the EFCC, which indicted Bawa who was then the Port Harcourt Zonal head, was forwarded to President Buhari in 2019 but the President failed to read or act upon it.
It had been exposed that the report was forwarded to the President’s office, but the AGF influenced how it was dumped and not acted upon by President Buhari.
SaharaReporters had also on March 4 reported that cabals in the Aso Rock succeeded in caging Vice President Yemi Osinbajo through the probe of a former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler – both of whom are godsons to Tinubu.
The caging of the Vice President, Osinbajo; the former FIRS chairman’s probe and the EFCC probe of Tinubu was to let the APC leader abandon his 2023 presidential ambition for the “candidates anointed” by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Top sources in the presidency had revealed that the cabal would intensify its probe of Tinubu and his godsons to force the APC chieftain to abandon the presidency race before the end of 2021.
SaharaReporters had stated that one of the masterminds of the several probes around Tinubu and his allies is AGF Malami, who himself is desperate for the 2023 presidency.
–Sahara Reporter
