Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday in Abuja, charged the party’s critical stakeholders in Benue to be united in the interest of its development in the state.
He gave the charge when a delegation of the party’s stakeholders from Benue, led by Dr George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, visited him at the party’s national secretariat.
Adamu promised that the APC National Working Committee (NWC), under his leadership, would do everything possible to ensure that the party took over governance of Benue in the next election.
Akume was one of the six aspirants that stepped down for Adamu to emerge as APC’s consensus national chairman at its March 26 National Convention.
He said the visit was to congratulate Adamu on his emergence as APC national chairman.
“Basically, we are here on solidarity visit; we came to congratulate the chairman on being elevated to the exalted position of chairman of the greatest party in Africa.
“This is a party that has membership of over 42 million Nigerians,” he said.
Akume added that the APC was proud to have carried out a successful revalidation exercise of its members across the country because other political parties tried it and failed.
“They tried twice and they failed twice; so we are very proud of this record that we are the biggest political party in (West) Africa,” he said.
Speaking on the crisis that pervaded the party ahead of its national convention, especially in Benue, Akume said a big political party such as the APC even at the state level was expected to have little irritations here and there.
He said such irritations were, however, not sufficiently strong to break the organic unity of the party in Benue, stressing that even members of the same family occasionally had issues.
He assured Nigerians and particularly the APC and its national chairman that the little irritations in the party’s Benue chapter would be squarely addressed for the benefit of party and its teeming supporters.
According to Akume, the party’s supporters in Benue were looking onto the APC as the only hope of the common man in the state and at the national level.
“So we are very confident that APC Benue will come on stronger than can be ever imagined.
“We are doing very well; we have registered so many members. We have registered those who are ready to vote and therefore, Benue is ready to go,” he said.
He added that though President Muhammad Buhari had advised that the N20 million paid by aspirants to purchase the party’s Expression of Interest and Nomination forms to contest its chairmanship position be refunded to them, he had sacrificed his own to the party.
“We are still members of this party and nothing had distracted us from joining others in finding solutions to the small problems that we have in the APC.
“The issue on money does not arise. I had willingly donated my own to the party, and I believe others would do the same thing,” he said.
According to Akume, the aspirants that stepped down for Adamu to emerge as the party’s concensus national chairman had a basic understanding to support the party’s present leadership to succeed.
“We have this basic understanding; we have to support the present leadership of the party to succeed; that is what is important so that we will continue with the good work President Buhari is doing,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that those who stepped down for Adamu included Malam Saliu Mustapha, Sen. George Akume, and Sen. Sani Musa.
Others were Sen. Tanko Al-Makura, another former governor of Nasarawa, former Gov. Abudulaziz Yari of Zamfara and Etsu Muhammed.
Until his emergence as APC national chairman, Adamu who was a former Governor of Nasarawa State, was the Senator representing Nasarawa West in the Senate. (NAN)
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