APC seeks presidential candidate from N’East

•Atiku, Marwa, Nyako, Ribadu top list
There is a powerful move within the northern ranks of the All Progressive Congress, APC, to zone the presidency to the North-East, Sunday Mirror has exclusively gathered.
It was gathered that the move is being spearheaded by some key political leaders and northern elders from the region, in an attempt to reintegrate what they have seen as politically disadvantaged part of the North.
The North-East, which is composed of Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states, has never produced a President, either in the military or under democratic dispensations. Several attempts in the past by notable politicians from the North-East to clinch the presidency were unsuccessful.
A source within the party who is part of the move to shift the presidency to the North-East, said, “You know, during the Second Republic, Mallam Adamu Ciroma and Prof. Iya Abubakar aspired for the Presidency, but they were prevailed upon to back out by some respected elders.”
The clamour to give the North-East a chance, he said, started with the 2011 presidential election when the Adamu Ciromaled Northern Consensus Committee which persuaded two aspirants for the PDP ticket- General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (North-Central) and General Aliyu Gusau (North-West)-to withdraw for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
The zone is also the hotbed of the Boko Haram insurgency currently rocking the country which security experts attribute to rising level of poverty and despair among the people.
The efforts, according to the source, was hatched by some concerned elders from across the North who felt the North-East is unfairly treated in the scheme of things in the country and needed to be compensated.
It is also said to be part of the effort to reintegrate the North and mend broken fences created by feelings of lack of equity among its various peoples.
However, the elders in their search for a northern President are said to be concentrating on the recently formed mega opposition party, APC. Currently, APC parades the like of Nuhu Ribadu, Murtala Nyako and Buba Marwa as chieftains that are eminently qualified as presidential materials from the zone.
It is also gathered that former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who all things being equal will soon defect to the APC, is one of the people that the elders are looking up to, from the zone.