•APGA’ll take over 8 states –National chairman

From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka and Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in last Saturday’s election in Anambra State, Dr. Tony Nwoye, has said he will not challenge the result in court.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Willie Obiano of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) winner of the election.

With only 98,752 votes, Nwoye came behind Obiano, who polled 234,071 votes to clinch victory.

Oseloka Obaze, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) initially rejected the election results but, yesterday, congratulated Obiano.

In a tweet, yesterday, Nwoye praised  President Muhammadu Buhari and described him as  “honest and reliable,”  a leader who “supervised a credible election. I have no plans of challenging it in court. I will only congratulate him (Obiano).”

Still basking in the euphoria of Saturday’s election victory, National chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Oye, has boasted that his party would take over eight more states in the 2019 general elections.

Oye, who spoke during a press conference, yesterday, said that having won last Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra state, APGA is now in a better form now to move out to conquer other states.

The APGA boss disclosed that a road map has already been drawn by the party to achieve the feat, ahead of the 2019 elections. He stressed that APGA remains the only party with a clear ideology in Nigeria and dismissed rumours  Obiano plans to dump the party for the APC.

Meanwhile, the APC has congratulated Obiano and its candidate, Nwoye on his impressive performance. The party applauded Nwoye for conceding defeat.

In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, APC also commended INEC for conducting what was regarded as a credible election, which passed the integrity test. 

Also, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),  Oseloka Henry Obaze and the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Akunwata Ejoor Ojiba, have congratulated Obiano on his victory.

Obaze, who addressed a press conference at his campaign office,  also saluted fellow contestants, on “their valiant efforts, decorum during the campaigning and for promoting peace.”

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On his part, Ojiba said  the state must move forward.

“The future of Anambra and all Anambrarians remains greater than the ambition of any individual. It is time to agree and work together, as one people, to develop the state,” he said.

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Dr, Tony Nwoye has congratulated Governor Willie Obiano on his declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the governorship election.

Nwoye who expressed sadness over what he called INEC partiality in the exercise however, said he had accepted the pronouncement of INEC as the will of God , hence he would not question it or go to court over it.

He said, “Yesterday our people turned out enmass to exercise their franchise; they believe they would vote for a leader that will take them to the next level. You will believe with me that the conduct of the election leaves much to be desired. An election where INEC that suppose to be independent turned out to be dependent, instead of being partial turned out to be partial, but we thank them for being partial, we are however leaving all those who played one role or the other in this to their conscience, they should know that it is God that gives power and takes power.

“I must say that we are not cowards, we have looked inwards, we have searched our conscience and I have to congratulate Governor Willie Obiano for his emergence, whether you like it or not he has been declared the winner. I made promise to myself, my God and my supporters that whatever is the outcome of this election that I will take it in good fate. Upon everything that happened, I never seen such thing in my life, but I congratulate him.

“I congratulate Ndi Anambra and enjoin every Anambrarian to join hands with him to move the state forward, I enjoin every Anambrarian to criticize constructively. I believe by criticizing him constructively especially in the local government funds which his government has been siphoning, so that he take caution and do the right thing. God has decided who the winner will be who am I to questin God, I leave everything in the hands of God.”

Nwoye who did not claim that he won the election described the result declared by INEC as scandalous alleging that they allocated figures.

He said, “I don’t want to go into the actions of the INEC and security agencies, the election has be lost and won, let everybody judge himself or herself based on the role played. A situation they were cancelling everywhere we won, a situation where in at Engwu Otu where those that voted were no up to 500 but they wrote over 5900, in many places they were allocating figures, so we leave them to their conscience, let INEC search themselves, from the chairman to the last and know actually whether they have done well or not.

“We are going to criticize the government constructively; I don’t think am going to court. The party is there and may decide what it wants to do about it, am a loyal party man but for me I am not going to any court to contest this election, I am leaving it in the hands of God.”

Thanking the people he said, “I want start by thanking the Almighty God for his love and mercy, I thank God that no life was lost because it would have been painful and disastrous had we lost any life. No life of any Anambrarian is worth losing because of election. I want to  thank Anambrarians for the way they came out, our vibrant resilient youths who were harassed, intimidated, wounded and maimed by the agents of APGA assisted by security agencies because of this election. I want to thank Nigerians of various cadre who gave us their trust and supported us in this time in our quest to lead Anambra state.”

He thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his love and uncommon solidarity and pledged the unalloyed loyalty and support of the party in state to the President in his future political endeavors.