The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, has expressed hope that the party will emerge victorious in the forthcoming Ekiti State governorship election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed June 18, for the conduct of the Ekiti State gubernatorial election.
Adamu expressed his view when he formally presented the APC candidate for the Ekiti gubernatorial election, Mr Abiodun Oyebanji, to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on Friday.
He said: “We came to present Mr Abiodun Oyebanji, who is the gubernatorial candidate of our great party the APC in the forthcoming election of 18th June, 2022.
“He emerged successful after a very thorough and transparent primary election.
“We came to present him for the President’s blessings and for the President, who is the father and leader of our party to formally present the flag of our great party, the APC, to him and that has just been done.
“The president was so happy in receiving the candidate and by the grace of God the Governor-to-be for Ekiti.”
On the forthcoming APC presidential party primaries, Adamu gave the assurance that the exercises would be free and fair, culminating in the emergence of an acceptable candidate.
He said: “we will come out by the grace of God and at the appropriate time with a candidate that the convention of our great party will choose.
“I do not want to speculate but my duty as a party Chairman is to listen to our party men and leaders and stakeholders to see what is going to be best when the time comes,” he said.
He also addressed the seemingly exorbitant cost of APC nomination forms, with that of presidential aspirants fixed at N100 million.
Adamu explained that the party had to do so in order to mobilise sufficient funds for the running of the party as well as its campaigns for next year’s general elections.
“On the issue of cost of our forms, we have been listening to the hues and cries from our lovers and our adversaries and we have no regrets whatsoever.
“We did some homework and we know what it takes to go through primaries, presidential campaign and election of a president.
“We also do know that there are citizens who are qualified to contest but are not serious contenders who will assert their rights and create problems for our party.
“Similarly, we know that there are political parties that have no chance to win presidential election in Nigeria.
“They will sponsor people to parties that have prospects of winning the election in order to cause problems or divert attention.
“Over and above that, yes, we are the ruling party and we need to set an example. We don’t want to continue begging for funds particularly in an election year like this.
“So, we want to see that we are able to mobilise enough funds to support our effort to win elections,” the APC Chairman clarified.
He said that the APC had yet to decide which part of the country its presidential candidate would come from.A
PC candidate, Oyebanji, who also fielded questions from the correspondents, thanked the president and the leadership of the APC for their support.
He expressed optimism that the party would emerge victorious in the June 18, governorship election in Ekiti State.