Senator Abubakar Girei, a member of the Election Management Committee at the recently concluded Special National Convention of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is the actual winner of the primary election.
According to him, Osinbajo emerged as the greatest winner of the election despite coming third in the election with his 235 votes out of the total 2,260 votes cast.
The former lawmaker explained that despite the fact that politics has shown that the ‘highest bidders’ always have their way, Osinbajo did not engage in vote-buying during the just-concluded presidential primary of the party.
He added that the Vice President went into the election with clear intention of how to solve the problems of Nigeria.
Girei said this while speaking to newsmen in Kaduna on Monday.
He said, “But I can tell you that the Vice President won the special convention without fear of contradiction.
“As the Vice President, he is an heir to the throne, a crown prince, who should have been given the right of first refusal in the contest in which he offered himself to serve the nation, and in which he had national acceptability.
“He had the best speech and his manifesto at the convention was the best. He identified problems and proffered solutions to them more than all other aspirants. For someone who had never contested any election before and with no politicking knowledge, to emerge third at the convention, I consider him the greatest winner of the convention.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Nigeria has lost the best presidential candidate that would have been produced.”
Noting that the Vice President was against vote-buying, Girei said “even his friends and associates who tried to help him could only do so without his knowledge or consent.”
“His teeming supporters are those of us who are committed to his ideals out of the convictions that he has the knowledge, experience, capacity, capability, mental and physical fitness, and all that is required to transform our dear nation to greatness.
“It may also interest Nigerians to know that PYO is opposed to monetisation of our democracy and politics, and has refused to encourage delegate or vote-buying,” he added.
