The National Vice Chairman (North East) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mustapha Salihu, has clarified why the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, was not included in the recent endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for a second term.

Naijaonpoint reports that the omission of Shettima happened during a North-East APC stakeholders meeting held in Gombe on Sunday, where the region endorsed Tinubu for re-election but left out Shettima.

The omission of the Vice President also comes amid growing speculation about his future in politics.

However, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Salihu said including Shettima in the endorsement would have meant that Tinubu had already chosen his running mate for the 2027 election.

He said, “It would have been inappropriate to endorse the Vice President along with the President because it would pre-assume that he is the running mate.”

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, has denied any intent to work for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in 2027 at the exclusion of Vice President Kashim Shettima.

This is as he condemned the chaos that occurred in Gombe State over the weekend during an APC stakeholders meeting following the reported exclusion of Vice President Kashim Shettima from a motion endorsing President Bola Tinubu for a second term ticket in 2027.

Speaking on Monday in a statement via his Senior Special Assistant on Public Enlightenment, Oliver Okpala, Ganduje condemned the acts of thuggery displayed by some APC members during their meeting in Gombe.

He said the “disruption and acts of thuggery and brigandage by some members of the party at the zonal meeting of the North East APC is totally condemnable, grievously irresponsible and unpatriotic to the current political dispensation in the county.”