The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said President Muhammadu Buhari was shocked when he was told that Senate President Ahmad Lawan was the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s anointed candidate.

El-Rufai disclosed this while answering questions on a programme on TVC on Thursday.

In June 2022, before the APC presidential primary started, the National Chair of the party, Abdullahi Adamu, announced Lawan as the consensus candidate for the party.

The announcement was met with mixed reactions, including a rejection by several APC governors.

“We went to the president and said ‘Mr. President, this is what we are hearing; this is not what you’ve been telling us in the past two to three years. Is it true?’

“And the president expressed shock and said ‘I’m not part of this’.

“Right there and then, he summoned Garba Shehu to issue a statement that he hasn’t anointed anyone. And he told us very clearly ‘I have not anointed anyone’,” El-Rufai said.