TheCable

Bolaji Abdullahi, national publicity secretary of All Progressives Congress (APC), says he is not surprised by his victory at the just concluded national convention of the party. 

Abubakar Badaru, governor of Jigawa and chairman of the convention planning committee,announced that Abdullahi defeated his opponents winner of the election on Sunday.

He polled a total of 2002 votes to defeat Abdul Sidiq, his closest opponent who garnered 243 votes.

Reminded of issues around the rift generated by aggrieved members of the new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP), which was likely to affect his chances, Abdullahi said: “Not at all, it was democracy.”

He expressed joy at the success of the convention, adding that the APC has demonstrated its ability to provide quality leadership.

“I don’t know where that is coming from because I have not heard it. We belong to APC and this is where we belong,” Abdullahi said.

“Have you seen a farmer that plants and then walks away from it after it has mature? So I’m just hearing it from you.

“We have never heard such a rumour. So things are going accordingly and we are happy that God has granted us victory.

“I am happy that we are now stronger than we were. People were expecting that we will not be able to hold this convention; they thought coming to this convention, our party is going to implode right here.

“We thank God Almighty that this has not happened. Our party has demonstrated that we are very strong and resilient and that we are capable of providing leadership quality.”

Lanre Issa-Onilu, one of the aspirants who contested against Abudullahi, had said the story of his defeat may never be known.

Expressing his dissatisfaction with the result, Issa-Onilu said the story would be told one day.

Issa-Onilu was the preferred candidate in the “anointed” list by President Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party, while the governors preferred Abdullahi to continue as the mouthpiece of the party.