….We’ll support only candidates on INEC list – PCC
By Oguike Nnadi
The presidential candidate of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday met with the party’s governorship and National Assembly candidate at the party’s presidential campaign headquarters in Abuja
The meeting, which came barely one week after a similar with the APC Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) according to the APC PCC Secretary, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke deliberated on some challenges so encountered in the ongoing campaigns, as well as reviewed the party’s campaign activities so far, including reports of campaign funding challenges
The APC presidential candidate, who addressed the candidates at the meeting, dismissed reports about his ill health, saying that he has been outworking his opponents in the race.
“As you can see, they call me weak but I am canvassing back and forth and, in every corner, and space of the nation. My opponents are not. I am outworking them because this election is a great mission for me, much more than my personal ambition”, he stated.
This was as the APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC said it would work strictly with the list of candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, disclaiming concerns in some quarters that some powerful politicians could arm-twist the party into announcing multiple lists.
Addressing journalists on the outcome of the meeting, the Secretary of the PCC, Hon. James Faleke said the council resolve to support and work with only the candidates on the final list that was published by INEC, adding that there are no multiple lists.
He said; “It is just a relationship meeting between our candidate and the Presidential Campaign Council. We want to know what is happening in their various states. There is nothing more than that.
“The biggest takeaway is the determination of everybody to work for the success of the party. From our interactions with the candidates, I can assure Nigerians that we are winning this election. As for the challenges they relayed to us that they are facing, it is an internal issue we will handle internally.
“On the question about having multiple candidates for some seats, we have some candidates challenged by other aspirants while others have court judgement but as far as the INEC list is concerned, we are going to deal with the list. We are not dealing with party list this time around. We already have the INEC list in our custody. We have a case of somebody winning at Court of Appeal but the loser who appealed to Supreme Court wants us to stay action because of the appeal. But, we have told them that the law does not operate that way. We have made it clear to them that the law says that the man with substantive judgement be allowed”.
Faleke, who also denied reports of funding challenge in the Campaign Council, noted however that all he challenges encountered so far in the campaign formed part of the deliberations at the meeting, even as he also denied the reported rift between the APC presidential candidate abd the party’s governors, describing as “fantastic”, the relationship between Tinubu and the state governors.
“He has fantastic relationships with the governors. Nobody should listen to those lies. If they are bold enough, let them say it. The (Peoples Democratic Party PDP) are the one that has problems like the G-5, G-2, and G-1. Let them also be thinking that we are facing the problem of funds”, he added.
Also speaking, a former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Umar Tanko Almakura said the success of the meeting indicates that the APC will have a landslide victory.
He said; “This is a meeting that the leaders have called to get us really prepared, to get us properly inclined for what we are supposed to expect and what we’re supposed to do. The election is about 40 days or so. And everyone has to be sensitized, everyone has to be in the right frame of mind to pursue the project in line with what is enshrined in the Constitution and Electoral Act. And from what you can see, there is a tremendous amount of motivation, there is so much synergy in the ways a manner we are talking towards this election. I can see from the result of this meeting, that this election will be a huge success for APC at all levels because we’re all on the same page”.
The meeting which was held at the PCC secretariat in Abuja had members of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee NWC in attendance, alongside state governors of the APC, the leadership of the National Assembly, governorship and National Assembly candidates, state party chairmen among others.
Tinubu earlier in his address to the candidates noted that he had been eager to meet with the party’s candidates, and urged them to ensure they do not disappoint members of the party who elected them to fly the party’s flags at the polls.
He said; “I am pleased to meet with you today because in you I see our party’s hope and path to success. In you I see the hope of historic national progress as well.
“We formed the APC, not just to be another political party. We formed it as a champion of the people to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP who boasted of ruling the nation for 60 years.
“We formed this party to rescue the people and their collective prosperity from the avarice and greed of an elite that will devour the nation’s God-given endowment if we allow such people back into power. As those flying our party’s flag, we carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.
“We have the mandate to deliver the party to victory so that we may protect Nigeria from those who would devour all of its fruits.
“The party has placed its trust in us. Democratic victory in the coming elections is a task we must accomplish.
“As individuals, we must strive to win our respective elections. But that is not enough. We have to work together to deliver everyone contesting in our party. The presidential election, for example, is not solely about Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is your project as well. Your election is equally my project.
“We need each other. Whatever position you are contesting, you need me as much as I need you. If I work for you, I am helping myself; if you mobilize for me, you are working for yourself at the same time. Our individual and collective fates are one. Let us win and rise together. This is as it should be.
“Our strength lies in our number and our spread. Having you across the length spread of this country makes me comfortable. I am working round the clock for our collective victory. We all should not rest until the entire election is over and victory is ours,” he added.
