By Oluwafemi Popoola
Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, Thursday morning, May 5, 2022, picked the expression of interest and nomination forms of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 presidential election.
Senator Kabiru Gaya, a member of the Senate representing Kano South Senatorial District, led other support groups members to the International Conference Centre, Abuja, which is the designated venue where the forms are being sold, to pick up the copies on behalf of Prof Osinbajo.
The governing body of APC had fixed the cost of the presidential nomination and expression of interest forms at N100 million.
On how the huge funds were raised, as earlier disclosed via his social media accounts, Laolu Akande, the Spokesperson to Vice President Osinbajo, said “passionate team support groups and individual Nigerians from across the country raised the funds to support the purchase of APC nomination forms for the Vice President’s 2023 presidential bid.”
“Today, the forms are being collected by representatives of the team, just as the VP continues his interactions with APC stakeholders across the states. Today, he is in Cross River and Bayelsa states,” Akande said.
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Recalled Vice President had declared his interest to contest for the 2023 President in a video released where he spoke to Nigerian on Monday, April 11, 2022, now sealing the decision with the purchase of the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms three weeks to the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary election scheduled to hold on May 30 and 31, 2022.
While the Vice President Osinbajo was in Calabar, Cross River State, in continuation of his tour of states to meet with APC delegates and stakeholders, seeking their support ahead of the APC primary election, the Senator Gaya delegation was joined by the former Governor of Kano, among other dignitaries to pick the forms in a colourful event.
Recall earlier that, one group called the Osinbajo Grassroots Organisation (OGO), a foremost progressive grassroots organisation had donated the sum of N15million to support the purchase of the All Progressives Congress (APC) expression of interest and nomination forms for the Vice President.
The convener of the group, Foluso Ojo, said that more than 98 per cent of the money came from small donors of less than N5,000.
According to him, “over 5,000 Nigerians have donated this hefty sum to declare their solemn faith in the candidacy of the Vice President, to build a better Nigeria based on fairness, equity, justice, patriotism and hard work. We will not disappoint them.”
this donation is a show of faith of the Nigerian people in the Osinbajo project; that they won’t give up in the face of these challenges.
“The Osinbajo Grassroots Organization, with over 1.5 million members in over 8,900 Wards that make up the federation has promised to mobilise 20 million votes for the Vice President at the general election if the All Progressives Congress ( APC) gives him the ticket,” Ojo had stated.
