Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has assured party faithful and Nigerians that the ruling party will retain power beyond 2023 general elections.
Speaks during a meeting between the APC Progressives Governors Forum and the National Working Committee (NWC) at the party headquarters, which lasted several hours, Oshiomhole admitted that he had had challenging periods since assumption of office last year.
The five-man delegation of the PGF, comprising the governors of Kano, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kebbi, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, Kwara, Abdulrahman Abdurazaak, and Yobe Deputy governor, Idi Barde Gubana and Niger deputy governor, Ahmed Mohammed Ketso stormed the meeting vevue around 11.20am and left at 2.20pm.
Addressing the delegation, the former Edo State governor, warned that with the spate of litigations at various courts, it was not yet time to rejoice for victory.
”It is quite a challenging experience for me. I try to compare myself as a governor and now as chairman of a party. Coming in on the eve of the primaries and dealing with the fallout of the previous congresses.
“And then proceeding to conduct elections. Then conduct primaries and campaigns across the 36 states and the FCT. And, working hard to ensure that we secured as many votes we ciuld for our president. As, well as support our states particularly where we didn’t have state governors to ensure that we were able to lend a helping hand.
“And, I am happy to say that at the end of the day even though we lost some states, we also gained some states. We gained Kwara, which for us is extremely important. We also gained Gombe State which is also very strategic among others.
“Of course, we have a clear majority in the National Assembly. We have more senators elected on our platform. We also have more of House Representatives elected on our platform.
“As it stands, there are many cases in court. Until those cases are resolved, we won’t be able to say for sure where we stand. It is our prayer. Because we believed that a lot of our cases in court have merit. We hope that there will be justice and they are resolve in our favour.
”We also want to congratulate you for having being re-elected. Sometimes it is easier to be elected the first time. But, to be re-elected implies a huge vote of confidence by the people of your respective states. “Looking at things from here, I know a lot went into trying to seize the deliberate attempt by the opposition to discredit the good ones.
“Like, we have said during the retreat, we believed our party has made a lot of progress in the three key areas that were reflected in our manifesto. But, there is a lot to be done.
“I am sure working together at both the executive, state and federal levels, by the special grace of God, we will do better in this second time. As to merit, our party will continue to govern the country post 2023,” he said.
In his own reaction, the chairman of the APC Governors Forum, Bagudu, confirmed that some issues were deliberated at the forum’s meeting on Thursday where it was decided that a delegation be sent to the national chairman.
In his own reaction, the chairman of the APC Governors Forum, Bagudu, confirmed that some issues were deliberated at the forum’s meeting on Thursday where it was decided that a delegation be sent to the national chairman.
“We are very proud that we have a president who insisted that we should not sacrifice due process for convenience at a time when it was difficult for many of us to contemplate the party going through national convention and primaries almost at the same time, Mr. President courageously said we have to do it because that is what we promised Nigerians.
“One of the most important signature between our party and other parties and we are glad, so we are happy to cooperate with the NWC to whatever we can do to strengthen the party,” he said.
