Our team delivered on the assignment given us, Buni tells Buhari

Yobe State governor and Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Mai Mala Buni has said his team met the set target.

He made the declaration on Saturday night in his valedictory speech at Eagles Square on the occasion of the national convention where a new set of national officers was elected.

The APC CECPC was put in place on June 2020 following the dissolution of the National Working Committee led by former Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole by the National Executive Committee of the party.

The 12-man team was saddled with the responsibility to reconcile aggrieved chieftains and conduct a national convention.

The conduct of the national convention held at the weekend was however aborted twice.

Governor Buni who thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and his colleagues in the Progressives Governors Forum maintained that his team was able to achieve peace in fractured state chapters for lasting peace and also brought governors in the main opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party into the ruling party.

Apart from troubleshooting initiative, Governor Buni said his team carried out the membership registration of party faithful thus increasing its ranks to 41 million members.

He said:” Upon assumption of office, the committee embarked on a genuine and all-inclusive reconciliation process to give everyone a true sense of belonging, confidence, and reassurance in the collective ownership of the party. We, first of all, visited some critical stakeholders to engage them in resolving the disputes and other hanging disagreements in the party. While some of these visits were made public, others were done out of the public glare and without media publicity. Similarly, we visited some aggrieved chieftains who sincerely shared their ill feelings with the committee. We spoke to each other frankly, placing party interests above personal interests.

“I am glad to state that those frank discussions built a new hope in the hearts of the aggrieved persons such that, those who earlier left the party returned back, while those contemplating to forsake the party, never left.

“However, when we commenced the assignment, we realized that the problems on the ground had far outweighed our estimation of the time required to resolve the huge problems bedevilling the party. This made the initial six months dateline grossly inadequate, unrealistic, and not practicable and therefore, the need for extension of more time. Happily, for every extension, we brought in additional values with positive developments into the party.

“Having reconciled substantial stakeholders, members and groups, the committee commenced membership registration and revalidation exercise, being one of the mandates of the CECPC, to establish the party’s numerical strength for proper planning and mobilization. ]

“The exercise provided our new members with the opportunity to register as legitimate members of APC with equal rights, privileges, and opportunities, as well as, to give back the ownership of the party to the members, using the bottom-top approach.

“I am glad to state with all sense of fulfilment that the membership registration and revalidation exercise, recorded over 41 million members who registered with the details of their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) and passport size photographs. This unprecedented increase in membership from the previous 11 million registered members to over 41 million registered members, provides the party with an added advantage of winning elections in Nigeria with landslide victories.

“Mr President, distinguished members, ladies and gentlemen, APC under the Caretaker Committee, made history with an unparalleled record of high-powered defections into the party. Three serving governors of Ebonyi State, His Excellency Engr. Dave Umahi, Cross River State, His Excellency Dr. Ben Ayade, and Zamfara State, Alhaji Bello Mutawalle, defected along with Millions of their supporters from PDP into the APC.

‘I am glad to add that the fortunes of the party were further enriched with the defection of former Speakers of the House of Representatives, former PDP national chairman, member PDP Board of Trustees, several Distinguished Senators and Honourable members of the House of Representatives and state assemblies, and several other heavyweights cutting across all the geo-political zones of the country.”

In an apparent reference to Court pronouncements sacking the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, Governor Buni said the governors of Ebonyi and Cross Rivers State, Ben Ayade and his Zamfara state counterpart, Bello Muhammad Matawalle should not be bothered as he expressed the hope that the Supreme Court would set aside the judgement.

“Let me reassure those of you whose defections are being challenged in the courts that you have nothing to fear because your defections did not contravene any law. You will by the grace of God emerge successful and victorious in the superior courts at the end of these litigations. Your wise decision to join APC along with millions of your supporters shall never be in vain.”

The Governor of Kebbi State and Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu commended the party stakeholders for achieving the feat of conducting the national convention ahead of the presidential convention.