Governors are holding tight to their influence in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

As the ruling party gets set for its convention on February 26, the governors have resolved to screen the chairmanship aspirants and recommend two preferred choices for President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval, it was learnt last night.

There are 11 aspirants for the office of chairman, all of them from the North.

The party said yesterday it has not decided on the zoning of offices.

Those who have expressed interest to lead the party are Alhaji Tanko Almakura, Alhaji Saliu Mustapha, Senator Sani Musa, Senator Modu Sheriff, Senator George Akume, Senator Danjuma Goje, Sunny Sylvester Monidafe, Mohammed Estu, Isa Yuguda, Sani Shinkafi and Abdulaziz Yari.

“The governors are, however, determined to push ahead with their unity agenda to shortlist two aspirants.”

It was learnt that if the CPC gets the chairmanship seat, it might be a straightforward battle between Tanko Al-Makura and Mustapha, who is a former Deputy National Chairman of CPC.

Al-Makura and Mustapha played key roles in the merger talks in 2014.

Yesterday, the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) released the guidelines for the February 26 convention.