Vice President Kashim Shettima has rejected the plan of Nyesom Wike’s Rainbow Coalition for split voting.
He urged supporters to vote only for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general election.
APC elders in Ondo State also rejected any coalition arrangement that would require the party to sacrifice its candidates or surrender constituencies in exchange for support for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election, adding that the APC could win the State without any coalition.
Shettima issued the directive in Lafia, Nasarawa State, during the APC presidential campaign rally.
The Rainbow Coalition, led by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, is mobilising support for President Tinubu’s re-election.
Wike has repeatedly said the coalition was set up only to back the President, while it would back candidates (he personally hand-picked) of other parties for governorship, Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly seats.
Shettima disagreed with that position, saying the Presidency would not accept such an arrangement and that President Tinubu’s main message is a clean sweep for the party.
“APC from top to bottom; APC from bottom to top. We do not want a situation where they say vote for the President and not the governor, or vote for the governor and not the President, or the senator, or the House of Assembly. We want APC straight,” Shettima stated.
Speaking under the PBAT Mandate Elders Forum during a briefing in Akure, chairman of the forum, Demola Ijabiyi, addressed the issue of the proposed Rainbow Coalition, stating that while cooperation among political parties pursuing a common objective is valuable, the circumstances of each State must determine the form such cooperation takes.
According to the elders, in Ondo, where the APC controls government at both state and local levels, there is no justification for any coalition arrangement under any guise.
- Media Report