Chief Ikeobasi Mokelu, a former Minister of Information in the military government of late Gen. Sani Abacha, has joined the 2023 presidential race.
A credible source who preferred anonymity, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Abuja.
According to the source, Mokelu has been given the green light by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to obtain the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest for president.
The source said the former minister, who is a chieftain of the APC, received the nod from the APC leadership to contest few weeks ago.
According to the source, Mokelu has consequently been reaching out to the party’s stakeholders about his intention to contest in the presidential poll.
“He is also expected to engage with party members in the South-East, and in his Ubolo Unodu Ward 1, Oraifite, Ekwusigo Local Government Area (LGA), of Anambra.
“Mokelu was contacted by some top critical stakeholders of APC, who convinced him to run for president in the 2023 elections because he is seen as a masterstroke to meet the clamour for an Igbo president,” the source said.
It added that Mokelu, who was the convener of “I Stand With Buhari ’ Movement in 2018, had been a firm supporter of President Muhammad Buhari since 2003.
It said the former minister’s Abuja residence had become a beehive of activities since he received the nod to run for president.
NAN reports that Mokelu, reputed for his integrity and high level of political and social thought, was a delegate to the National Constitutional Conference of 1994.
As a minister under Abacha, he was said to have left a legacy of accountability and probity, and was also appointed into the National Council of Nigerian Vision, which was then the country’s economic planning council.
As a delegate to the National Constitutional Conference, some of his contributions were adopted as resolutions, including proposing and adopting the creation of Ekwusigo LGA. (NAN)