‘Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja

 

Daily Courier – The national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu has given the campaign council for the June 18, 2022 a matching order to deliver success for the party.

Adamu said this during the inauguration of a 61-member campaign council, chaired by Kebbi state governor, H.E Atiku Bagudu, to Ekiti state governorship election slated for June 18, 2022.

“As we inaugurate this Committee, I have one thing in the marching order of this party and that is don’t come home crying, don’t come home crying. If there’s a crying, let them go let them go and cry for their principals, not us” he said.

He urged the campaign council to deliver a legacy of victory for the president who has never hid his intention to follow constitutionality in every election.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is at the beginning of his trip out of the presidential villa. He made no secret of it. He’s a man of honour, he seeks no extension, he made it public in this very hall that used to be our NEC hall. He said it that he has been elected for a second time. He is under oath as president to protect and preserve the Nigerian constitution.

The Nigerian constitution has given him two terms of four years each, he was starting his second term and at the end of it, he doesn’t intend to and doesn’t ask for anybody to ask for a third term or any elongation of tenure.

Recently, he made the same pronouncement sometimes early this year. So we are on a bound like him to see that he has soft landing and that is to deliver this party to victory and Ekiti State is the first test.

So he takes this election very seriously, we would try to do as much as possible, we will be guided by the rules of engagement for elections, we will observer every rule, every guideline and we do hope that those who will be responsible for overseeing the compliance will be fair arbiters, will be fair umpire” Adamu said.

The national organising secretary, Amb. Suleiman Muhammad Argungu on his part, explained the rationale behind the composition of the campaign council urging them to work as a team to guarantee success at the gubernatorial election.

“In addition to our party’s commitment to respecting constitutionally define internal process in our Primary Elections, we are also determined, and have, indeed, triggered a deliberate policy of mainstreaming the inclusion of our women and youth membership in whatever democratic undertakings we are to embark upon as a party.

“This policy is exemplified in the composition of the Ekiti State Gubernatorial Campaign Council being inaugurated this morning. I am, therefore, pleased to inform this gathering that aside from the general membership of the Council, 6 more women have been added to the membership of the Council to specially represent the women’s wing.

“The youth of this party are respected and accorded due recognition because of their roles in our great Party’s activities. As done with the women’s wing, we have added more numbers of our youths to the Campaign Council as a reflection of our philosophy of accomplishing our Party’s objectives through the contributions and energy of all identifiable stakeholders within the Party. Collectively, all these wings working together under the direction of the National Organizing Secretary will certainly facilitate the incontestable triumph of the party at the Ekiti Governorship polls come June 18, 2022” he added.

 

We are only important when we are in power

Kebbi state governor and chairman of Ekiti state 2022 campaign council, H.E Atiku Bagudu thanked the party for the honour to be a part of the campaign council and promised not to let the party down.

This assignment should be acknowledged by all party members because we are only important when we are in power. And you will take the election elsewhere as unimportant or serving the party outside our normal abode as unimportant, then we are dooming the party. We request that the party should study the reports of any ad hoc committee by campaign committees who went the extra mile to ensure that we achieved success particularly in Ekiti.

Bagudu recalled the roles of the president, Chief Bisi Akande, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other party leaders in the success recorded in Ekiti four years ago, promising not to fall short this time around.

“And we know Chairman said we should not come back to complain. And we could recall hilariously, Mr chairman, the 2018 election in Ekiti state was an election in which stomach infrastructure was thrown at us in which someone broke his neck.

“Well, that’s what was said officially all in an attempt to run away from the hard work of the NWC and the campaign council in ensuring that we can win Ekiti state. And now we are even more competent, because in the last four years, Governor Kayode Fayemi has done a lot to ensure that Ekiti has remained a progressive state, I have been in the state a number of times, I’m a witness to the work because I helped in commissioning projects. And I believe that our party, the APC, chairman, what you are inaugurating today will be a easier job by what is on the ground. And I pray that as we achieve success in Ekiti, it will blossom in a bigger success in the election in Osun and 2023. As was the case, and urge all members of the committee and on behalf of them to appreciate our party and be sure that we will do our very best to do what was on the mind of the executive and the people of Ekiti deserve a special outing by the All Progressive Congress, because they enthusiastically welcomed us, that was the first election in which the Independent National Electoral Commission introduced the card reader technology, meaning the results were transmitted from the polling units to INEC national servers.

“But we did win convincely because we did not go into that election with any sense of entitlement. But we went there fair minded and determined to win. And with the support of the NWC, we won convincingly. So I pray that as we have been given this opportunity, all of us will sacrifice because we are having other primaries, other national assignment and the timetable is short, but I can assure you that we will do our very best to reciprocate the confidence that our party has placed on us” Bagudu added.

The members of the presidential campaign council include: the deputy chairman, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, governors Rotimi Akeredolu, Yahaya Bello, Inuwa Yahaya, Mohammed Badaru, Simon Bako Lalong, Ben Ayade, Hope Uzodinma, Senator Kassim Shettima, Ibikunle Amosun, Teslim Balogun, Orji Uzor Kalu, Yusuf Yusuf, Andy Uba, Sani Musa, Ndonma Egba, Osita Izunaso, George Akume, among others.

Ekiti state governorship election is scheduled for June 18, 2022 by the election umpires, independent national electoral commission (INEC).