By Uche Amunike
The All Progressives Congress (APC), has dissolved her Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), with immediate effect, not minding that Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Atiku Abubakar , have petitioned the APC to cancel the presidential election, while ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to conduct a rerun.
This disclosure was made by the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communications, Bashir Ahmad, who made the announcement on his Twitter handle, stating that the PCC had been dissolved and that the dissolution was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Director General of the APC PCC, Governor Simon Lalong and the Council Secretary, James Faleke, who clarified that the APC made the decision to dissolve the PCC in order to focus on the inauguration of Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, on May 29, adding that it was needful to carry out the dissolution for the best interest of the party.
It partly read: ‘Since the campaign council began in September 2022, we have witnessed an unprecedented, relentless, and engaging mobilisation of our members nationwide and in the diaspora towards securing the majority popular votes for the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential ticket.
‘The journey has been a worthy one with our hard-won victory. The credit goes to all our members particularly, the leaders and members of the various campaign directorates.’
‘We would like to express our deepest appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, for his unwavering support and leadership throughout the campaign. We could not have achieved this level of success without his single-mindedness, commitment, and forthrightness.’
‘We have concluded that it is in the best interest of the campaign and its stakeholders for us to dissolve our council with immediate effect. This has become necessary to retune us towards the May 29, 2023, inauguration of the President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.’
‘The process of transitioning into a new era of a Renewed Hope is underway and all our energies and activities must reflect the principles underlying this process.’
‘We hope that you will all continue to stay involved in Nigeria’s political process and to advocate for issues that you believe in. Our democracy is stronger when we all participate in the political process with patriotism. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your support, dedication, and hard work’, the statement added.
Recall that the APC PPC was formed in October 2022 to prosecute the 2023 presidential polls of Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima. Bola Tinubu of the ruling APC won 17 other candidates who also contested in the election. He scored 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP scored, 6,984,520 votes as Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi polled 6,102,533 votes.
In their separate petitions, Atiku Abubakar and Obi urged the court to cancel the February 25th polls and order a fresh election owing to alleged irregularities that were witnessed in thousands of polling units on that day.
