Nine Governors of the All Progressives Congress, on Monday, held a one-hour closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in his Daura private residence at the end of which they declared their support for Senator Kashim Shettima as the running mate to the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 general election.

The Governors also said they had confidence in the combination of Tinubu and Shettima to ensure victory for the party at the presidential election.

The Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, Abubakar Bagudu, told journalists at the end of the closed-door meeting: “We were pleasantly surprised when Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu announced in Daura on Sunday that Senator Kashim Ibrahim Shettima was the Vice Presidential candidate.

“We were happy that it is no less a person than Senator Shettima who was announced the Vice Presidential candidate. No doubt, Senator Shettima would complement the good qualities of Asiwaju Tinubu. We are very very happy at the choice. The two will complement each other and will surely consolidate on the achievements of the President in the past seven years .”

Bagudu added that their visit to Daura was to felicitate the President over Sallah.

Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, also chipped in that Shettima’s choice as the vice presidential candidate was a collective decision by all the Progressives Governors, adding that all the governors would work hard to ensure victory for the APC in the 2023 elections.

He said, “The choice of Senator Shettima as the vice presidential candidate is a collective decision. We shall work hard to ensure victory in all our states.”

Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, also said while the choice of the vice presidential candidate was the prerogative of the presidential candidate, all the APC governors would work to ensure the party’s victory at the 2023 general election.

He declared, “A presidential candidate has the prerogative of picking his Vice. But ours is to ensure the party’s victory in the presidential election.”

The nine governors: Aminu Masari (Katsina); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi); Abubakar Bello (Niger); Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa); Hope Uzodimma (Imo); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); Simon Lalong (Plateau); and Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), had earlier held the closed-door meeting with the President.

They were led by the Chairman, Progressives Governors’ Forum, Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State.

All of them except El-Rufai had travelled by road from Katsina where Governor Aminu Masari led them as chief host.

They drove into Daura’s private residence of the President few minutes after one in the afternoon, shortly after which the meeting started. The Kaduna State Governor later joined them at the meeting.

The meeting lasted almost one hour after which they and the President retired for a lunch.

The President later saw them off at 3:05pm after publicly exchanging banters with them.

The Punch