All Progressive Congress Vice Presidential Candidate, Kabir Masari has expressed his surprise at being selected as Asiwaju Tinubu’s running mate.

Masari disclosed this during an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Hausa service, revealing how honored he is to be picked.

“I was told that I will fill a form and return immediately. The form was brought to me and I filled and returned it as directed. Masari said.

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‘I am a realist and someone who believes in destiny.

“In the first place, this opportunity, to me, came as a surprise. I never envisaged in my wildest dream that I will be picked. But when it happened, it was God’s wonders. So nothing is impossible.

“I feel honored for this great opportunity. So, if at the end of the day it became otherwise. I will accept it as a will of God. More than anything, God has uplifted me.

“Do you know that since I was picked as his running mate, I have been inundated with phone calls from every part of the country wishing me luck? To say the least, I receive nothing less than 500 text messages. Over 200 on WhatsApp and 300 on SMS; that’s a rare privilege. It is only God that uplifts His servant.”

The APC Vice-Presidential candidate will then add that nothing is wrong with a Muslim/Muslim ticket, as Nigerians should be more concerned with development rather than religious issues.

“Many Christians and Muslims have been killed. So both of us must unite to salvage the situation; so, candidates must be assessed on their antecedents. The APC presidential candidate has performed credibly well based on his past records. He stated.

The majority status of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is currently under threat, as no less than 20 members of the party in the Senate have concluded plans to defect to opposition parties.

The APC members, according to a report, would be defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), amongst others.

In the course of Wednesday, June 22, 2022, plenary session, Senator Dauda Jika representing Bauchi Central, announced his defection to the NNPP, a development that brought the number of APC senators to 67.

Newsrand understands that the APC is experiencing mass defection to opposition parties as members of the party lost their return tickets to the National Assembly during the primary elections.

So far, APC has lost 13 senators to opposition parties; to stop this, its National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, met with the party senators behind closed doors at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

Explaining the defections, Adamu said it was normal considering that it is the country’s election year.

His words: “The meeting with the senators was most fruitful. The issue of defection is an unfortunate development when it happens but this is a season where there are all sorts of behaviour in the political space and ours is not an exception.

“In every election year, this kind of thing gives cause for stakeholders to sneeze and Nigeria is not an exception so is the APC, not an exception. I don’t care about what is happening in other parties, my focus is on the APC. But we all know that the occurrence is not only happening in the APC, it’s happening across other political parties too. And because we are the ruling party, our problems are exaggerated before the public.”

Ekiti State governor-elect, Biodun Oyebanji, on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, received his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

He received the certificate following his victory at the Ekiti State’s governorship election on Saturday, June 18.

Presenting the certificate in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, INEC’s National Commissioner Sam Olumekun expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the election and the role played by technology.

In his remarks, Oyebanji expressed gratitude to INEC and the security agents deployed to ensure stability in the state during the election.

He, however, attributed his electoral victory to the sterling performance of Governor Kayode Fayemi, promising to build on the latter’s legacies.