President Muhammadu Buhari will on Saturday (today) meet with the presidential aspirants on the shortlist of the All Progressives Congress (APC) screening committee at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

It was gathered that Buhari, who had earlier departed Abuja for Ghana to attend an Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, would meet with the APC presidential aspirants after his return to the country on Saturday evening.

A presidency source disclosed that the meeting would give a clearer indication of who the President’s preferred candidate might be.

“Remember that the President had appealed to Progressive governors to work with him to choose his successor before he travelled,” the source added.

The Star had on Friday reported that the APC presidential screening committee disqualified 10 aspirants from its primaries slated for June 6 to 8, 2022.

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The chairman of the committee, John Odigie-Oyegun, who made the disclosure, said only 13 out of the 23 aspirants screened were cleared by the committee.

The screening committee chairman, who failed to disclose the names of the disqualified presidential hopefuls, said only youthful aspirants made the list of cleared aspirants.

The screening of the presidential aspirant, which commenced on May 30 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja, ended on May 31.

The presidential aspirants screened by the APC screening committee included Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; the party’s national leader, Sen. Bola Tinubu; Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio; Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), David Umahi (Ebonyi), and Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa State).

Others were former Governors Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Sani Yerima (Zamfara), Rochas Okorocha (Imo); and the former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

Others included former Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba; Pastor Felix Nicholas, the only female presidential aspirant, Mrs Uju Ken-Ohanenye; Pastor Tunde Bakare; Sen. Ajayi Boroffice; former Senate President, Ken Nnamani;  former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole; oil magnate, Tein Jack; and a few others.

The Star