Fifteen candidates of various political parties in Borno Central Senatorial District on Wednesday withdrew for Governor Kashim Shettima to actualise his senatorial ambition.
They spoke in Maiduguri, the state capital, ahead of tomorrow’s re-scheduled presidential and National Assembly polls.
The governor is the senatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the district.
Giving reasons for their action, the candidates said: “No one has acquired the kind of experience necessary to represent Borno Central in terms of understanding the demands of the military’s operational efforts, the existing gaps, the humanitarian issues and the next phase of rebuilding as much as APC’s candidate for Borno Central, Alhaji Kashim Shettima.”
The Chairman of Forum of Candidates for Borno Central, AbdulKadir Fema, of the Action Peoples Party (APP), read a position paper on behalf of the 15 candidates at a media briefing at the Inter-Party Advisory Council’s office in Maiduguri.
The chairman was supported by 10 other candidates at the briefing.
They are candidates of Action Peoples Party (PPA), Better Nigeria Progressives Party (BNPP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), New Progressive Movement (NPM), Yes Electorates Solidarity (YES), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Nigerian Elements Progressive Party (NEPP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Nigeria Community Movement Party (NCMP), Coalition for Change (C4C), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Justice Must Prevail Party (JMPP), Independent Democrats (ID) and Democratic Alliance (DA). There are 20 candidates for Borno Central senatorial election.
“We, the under-signed candidates of 15 political parties for Borno Central senatorial election, have, after consultations with our supporters and amongt ourselves, resolved to withdraw from the February 23, 2019 re-scheduled presidential and National Assembly elections in unanimous support for candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC for Borno central senatorial, Alhaji Kashim Shettima.
“We took this decision based on our conviction that even though each of us has the capacity and the patriotic zeal to competently representing the people of Borno central in the 9th Senate, we are of the opinion that in the next national assembly, three major issues will largely define the representation of Borno people,” they said.
