Kingsley Moghalu/Vanguard
Presidential aspirant under the Young Progressive Party, Kingsley Moghalu has insisted that he is going ahead with his plan to contest the 2019 presidential election.
He made the clarification in reaction to the arrangement for a consensus candidate among the young presidential aspirants under the aegis of Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), which on Thursday picked motivational speaker Fela Durotoye as its consensus presidential candidate for 2019 general election.
Moghalu took to his Twitter page to inform his party and supporters of his resolve to remain in the presidential race despite the outcome of the PACT consensus arrangement which he described as disappointing.
He posted on Twitter, “I wish to inform members of my “To Build A Nation” (TBAN) movement, the Young Progressive Party (YPP) and my other supporters nationwide and in the diaspora that I am pressing ahead with my plan to contest the 2019 presidential election.
“This is despite the arrangement for a consensus candidate among the young presidential aspirants under the aegis of Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), which today produced an outcome that has left many Nigerians expressing surprise and disappointment.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria Deputy Governor gave reasons he pulled out of the PACT arrangement as follows:
1.The arrangement had unravelled even before the final selection of the consensus candidate. Only seven aspirants participated in the final voting out of the original 18 aspirants, mainly because many of the aspirants had withdrawn from the process.
Four candidates who were present in the meeting this morning withdrew from the process even while the voting process was ongoing. Therefore, PACT did not produce a truly consensus candidate.
2.Clause 13 of the PACT Memorandum of Understanding asserts the supremacy of the constitutional rights of the aspirants to pursue their political aspirations.
I therefore have chosen to continue without distraction to pursue my vision in the presidential race for 2019 in the national interest and in deference to the overwhelming outpouring of support for my candidacy from all parts of Nigeria.