A Presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Moses Ayom has withdrawn from the race citing the failure of his party to zone the ticket to the Middle-Belt region.
Ayom, who announced his withdrawal while breaking fast at the weekend with members of the Interfaith Clerics Council of Nigeria at the event centre he donated to the APC, named “APC First arena” in Abuja, has been a frontline campaigner for Middle-Belt Presidency.
He told newsmen that his decision to quit the race was also in total submission to the Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee of the APC.
“On the basis of all these, I wish to state without any form of equivocation, that I am standing down my aspiration for the Presidency of our country summarily. I wish to state very boldly that we shall return at the right time.” Ayom stated.
Adamu, it would be recalled, told journalists on Friday at the Presidential Villa that the party had not taken any decision on the zoning of the Presidency, saying such a decision was beyond the National Working Committee, but a prerogative of the entire party structure.
In his Sallah message, Ayom called on all Presidential aspirants across party lines to lower their political flags in honour of the victims of the Abuja Kaduna train attack still in captivity.
On a trip down memory lane, he gave an account of what informed his decision to join the race.
“It all started with the visit of the Middle Belt Christian Bishops, closely followed by the visit of the Middle Belt Imams all under the auspices of the Interfaith Clerics Council of Nigeria. I also had visits from the South East and South-South Leaders who came to confer on me the title of Eze Igbo Ndu 1 (The saviour of the Igbo race) and called on me to also contest. Since then, I have been inundated with calls from the women, less privileged, youths and the less privileged all singing one song that they have found in me the right qualities to put Nigeria back on the map of foremost development based on my antecedents.
“I accepted this call with the hope that if elected President, relief and succour will come to our people who for decades, would experience equity, fairness and justice because they have suffered untold marginalisation and maltreatment in the form of economic and social deprivation arising from political slavery. The wanton destruction of lives and property through terrorism, banditry and kidnappings which had been meted out to the Middle-Belt region is a classical example.
“In response to the call, we traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria starting with the Tiv Traditional council under the Tor Tiv, HRM (Prof.) James Ayatse, and all the paramount rulers in the Tiv kingdom blessed me saying “ go forth and conquer for the masses using truth as his weapon,” he recalled.
He also expressed dismay at the failure of the party to reduce the N100 million nomination fee for the presidential nomination form, saying “I made another passionate call to the leadership of our party a few days ago, to align with the call of Mr. President to avoid the pitfall of conceding the elections into the hands of the highest bidder.
“I called for the review of the high prices for a nomination form, the highest in the history of the country. The Interfaith Clerics Council also wrote a letter and visited the national chairman asking for a review of the prices all to no avail.”
Ayo added that he believed the APC was built on progressives ideals which were why Nigerians voted for it in 2015 and again in 2019, stressing however that “we cannot at this point be seen not to walk our talk.”
The aspirant advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to jettison the economic diversification policy of his government, saying a diversified economy is what Nigeria needs to make the most of her resource endowment.
