Ekiti 2022: APC inaugurates campaign committee, Adamu gives marching order
Joel Oladele, Abuja
The ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has inaugurated a committee to take charge of campaign and marketing of its flag bearer in the election slated for June 18.
At the event which took place on Monday at the party national secretariat in Abuja, the national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu gave a marching order to the committee and charged them to give their best towards the success of the party as all eyes is on them.
According to him, APC in an attempt to win, will respect and observe rules of engagement for elections.
“With this inauguration today, we are giving you a marching order to the campaign council and our great people of Ekiti State particularly, our own good people of Ekiti State on the platform of our great party, the APC.
“Ekiti is the first election that we will be having, in this dispensation of APC. God has blessed our lives, God has blessed my life and my political career. Once there’s a contest, there will be a winner and a loser, we are never on the losing side.
“But we don’t take that for granted. We are going to work as hard as we can to ensure that we deliver our gubernatorial candidate as the next governor of Ekiti State.
“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 crying, let them go let them go and cry for their principals, not us,” Adamu said.
Speaking further, the APC chairman said Buhari is a democrat and a man of integrity who has no intention for elongation of tenure.
“President Muhammadu Buhari 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 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 started 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 sometime early this year. So we are on a bond 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, and we do hope that those who will be responsible for overseeing the compliance will be fair arbiters, will be fair referees, will be fair umpires. It is our hope and prayers that God almighty will be with us, will guide us, will ensure that victory is ours.”
Responding, the chairman Ekiti Governorship Campaign Council who doubles as the governor of Kebbi State, His Excellency, Atiku Bagudu appreciated the party for the opportunity to serve and promised to give nothing less than the best.
“Chairman, on behalf of all of us, I wish to thank you and appreciate our party for giving us the honour to serve as members of the 2022 Ekiti gubernatorial Campaign Council, you have said it already that this is the first under your able leadership and because it is a first, it will form a memory of what happened in the last four years, because four years ago, we also had gubernatorial election in Ekiti state and I was privileged and honoured to serve as chairman.
“This assignment should be acknowledged by all party members because we are only important when we are in power.
“In 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari, apart from visiting twice, was on telephone call to follow up to ensure that we are getting it right. Our leaders, Baba Akande, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu all came to support us. Our brother, governor Akeredolu accommodated the campaign council as we moved from one place to the other.
“Sometimes we were making double commutes from Akure, the state capital of Ondo. Of course, I will also mention the role of our now secretary, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, as well as former governor of Ekiti state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, we couldn’t have achieved the success without their support.
“And we know the 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.”
He added that APC as the ruling party is now stronger in Ekiti than it was in 2018 and the achievements of Governor Kayode Fayemi is no doubt a plus that will make winning easy.
“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 witnessed the works because I helped in commissioning projects. And I believe that our party, the APC, what you are inaugurating today will be an easier job by what is on the ground.
“I pray that as we achieve success in Ekiti, it will blossom into 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 sure that we will do our very best to do what was on the mind of the executive and the people of Ekiti.
“Ekiti State deserves 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 convincingly 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 and the timetable is short, but I can assure that we will do our very best to reciprocate the confidence that our party has placed on us.”
