Former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has firmly dismissed claims linking him to a possible vice-presidential ticket with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2027 elections.
Amaechi stated that he is solely pursuing his own presidential ambition and will not serve as a running mate to anyone.
Amaechi’s response comes after Atiku’s ally, Dele Momodu, claimed that Atiku would consider the former Rivers State governor as a running mate if Peter Obi rejects joining him.
In an interview with Punch, Momodu complimented Amaechi’s political power, calling him a crucial factor in President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 election.
Responding through his media aide, David Iyofor, Amaechi dismissed any discussions of collaborating to make him a vice-presidential candidate.
Iyofor claimed that Amaechi believes it is Southern Nigeria’s turn to produce the next president and is consequently pursuing the African Democratic Congress (ADC) ticket.
He said, ”Amaechi is not seeking to be a running mate to anybody. He does not intend to be a presidential running mate to anybody and will not.
“Amaechi is not aware of, and will not be part of, any talk of being a running mate to anybody. For emphasis, Amaechi is running to be president of Nigeria and not to be a running mate to anybody.
Politicians are kindly advised to leave Amaechi’s name out of any discussion for presidential running mate,” Iyofor added.
This is not Amaechi’s first public declaration of intention to run for the ADC presidential ticket. In August, he promised not to stand down for any contestant in the party’s primary, emphasizing that the people should choose the party’s flagbearer.
Earlier in July, he claimed that if chosen by the ADC, he would be prepared to serve for one term in order to foster power rotation and political stability.
“If not for the coalition agreement, the answer to whether I’ll run (as president) would have been an outright yes,” he said.
“But what did we agree on? Everyone should keep aside their ambition. Let’s first get the platform. Let’s build it before talking about the presidency.”
Amaechi ran in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries in 2022 and finished second to President Bola Tinubu, who received the party’s ticket at the time.
