‘APC is back to life’ — Buhari says party crisis over

President Muhammadu Buhari says the All Progressives Congress (APC) is back to life and has overcome the phase of litigations and intra-party strife.

The president said the party has been revived, energised, and repositioned for its national convention and future elections.

Buhari spoke on Friday at a meeting with members of the national caretaker/extraordinary convention planning committee (CECPC) led by Mai Mala Buni, governor of Yobe state.

The president hailed the committee for reorganising the party and reconciling members, and added that “with the work done by the committee the party has bounced back to life”.

He said: “I have listened with great interest the remarkable job you have done so far.

“We are all witnesses to the crisis that engulfed the party leading to litigations and presented a picture of selfishness and division.”

Buni, the chairman of the CECPC, said the committee approached the duty with commitment and dedication to rescue the party from imminent collapse.

“We are currently witnessing high powered decamping to our party, including governors from the PDP,” he said.

“The party is now more peaceful, orderly and accommodating than what we met on the ground. Although there was initial fear, the mobilisation and sensitization was able to allay the fears of members.

“We have observed that youth and women constitute huge population of the voting group.

“We had a youth and women committee, and also people with disability.”

He said a contact and strategy team had been set up in every state to come up with an acceptable template that would ensure transparency, credibility and acceptability of the internal electoral processes.

Buni said the committee had also instituted a process to review the party’s constitution and look into loopholes that usually fan conflict and litigations among members.

The CECPC chairman added that the party members had agreed to name the APC national secretariat after the president.