Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

President Muhaammadu Buhari, on Tuesday night, dined with aggrieved All Progressives Congress  (APC) aspirants at the Presidential Villa, where he appealed to them not to exit the party.

At the dinner were those that contested for various positions but lost at the recently concluded primary elections of the party.

He urged them to be patient and remain with the party and work for its success during next year’s general election.

Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the event, a gubernatorial aspirant from Nassarawa State, Alhaji Aliyu Wadada, said the President assured the aspirants that justice would be done, as their cases would be looked into.

According to Wadada, “Beyond just eating at the dinner, as a family, we had discussions over the various experiences that aspirants had during the APC primaries and the President pleaded and pacified the aggrieved aspirants to remain resolute and continue to continue to be loyal and committed to Nigeria’s unity which is the most important thing beyond party politics.

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“The President told us his experiences form the military to civilian eras, adding that naturally it is never easy when your mandate is forcefully taken but whatever it is, we should remain as a family and the needful shall be done where necessary, to ensure that those that genuinely won their primary elections are given their stolen mandate but cases that cannot be really proven will have to bear with the outcome; after all, you don’t just divorce yourself from your family because you don’t get what you want,” he said.

Another aspirant, Sule Sani Sami, who ran for Senate ticket, in Kebbi State, said those at the meeting resolved to work hard for President Buhari’s re-election in 2019

He said, “One important thing coming out of the meeting with our President is our resolve to ensure that the President wins next year.

“We will stay back and fight to ensure that he is returned next year because we are not going to be campaigning for any person other than our President.

“He is our major concern and we will convince the electorate to vote for him because when he returns for a second term of office, we will give him the needed support, so that he can continue the good works that he has started.”

Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters, Ita Enang, said the meeting went well and the aspirants pledged to work for the party.

In the words of Enang, “The meeting went very well and the aspirants showed the spirit of comradeship and pledged to work with the President and all the candidates that the party has chosen and filed with the Independent Electoral Commission.

“The aspirants were very conciliatory and the President showed fatherhood. He also assured them that in the father’s house there are many rooms and he charged them to have the spirit of patriotism for the country,” he said.

Enang said the meeting was one of the greatest steps taken by the President and the APC to bring every aggrieved person together, thus paving way for the party’s success at the polls next year.