By Abba Dukawa
The national chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Malam Bello Falalu has said that the presidential ticket of the party is open to all Nigerians ahead of the 2023 elections.
Malam Falalu said the party has not zoned its presidential ticket,
He added that it would not shut out any citizen of the nation from any part of the country from contesting for presidency on its platform.
Malam Falalu disclosed this in Abuja after a meeting of the National Working Committee, Board of Trustees and the stakeholders of the party.
The chairman stated: “Have we zoned the Presidency to any part of Nigeria? The answer is No!
“Anybody from anywhere in Nigeria is free to come and contest for the presidential seat in PRP.
“Already, one of the aspirants is from Edo State. There is another retired military officer who says he’s from North- Central and wanted to contest and we said he’s welcome.
“What is important to us is who that person is.
He must be somebody who has integrity, whether male or female; not necessarily someone who is rich.
“The criterion for us is not to put up somebody as a presidential aspirant just because he is rich or he has godfathers or he has sponsors.
“We will develop a template for the selection of leadership in Nigeria and that template will cover presidency, governors and members of the National Assembly.”
Falalu also revealed that the party was in talks with the National Consultation Front (NCFront) headed by Prof. Pat Utomi; former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ghali Na’Abba and others.
It said it was also in talks with the Rescue Nigeria Movement to form an alliance ahead of the 2023 elections.
He added: “One other thing that has featured prominently in the cause of this deliberation is the invitation extended to the party to merge and form alliances.
“We are in discussion with some groups; NCFront for example and Rescue Nigeria Mission.
“These are two movements that are created – aimed at challenging the misrule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC )in Nigeria.” He said quite a number of those parties believed that it was necessary to form a national government in 2023.
Falalu said: “We have a paper from Prof. Attaihiru Jega on mergers and alliances. It was discussed exhaustively and we have agreed on what we are going to do.”
He further revealed that PRP now has leadership in place in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as well as in the 774 local government areas.
