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Tag: Muhammadu Buhari

  • IBB congratulates Buhari

    Sets agenda for him to address

     

    Former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida has congratulated President Buhari over his re-election to lead the nation for the next four years.

    In a statement signed by his and made available to Journalists in Minna, Babangida said the President should confront with renewed vigour the most urgent problem confronting Nigeria.

    He stated that the insecurity of lives and property is one of the most urgent problem  confronting the nation as the Boko Haram insurgency remains a threat to many Nigerians particularly in the North East sub region adding that kidnapping and armed banditry remain a national menace.

    “Now that the President has won his re-election bid, he should confront with renewed vigour the most urgent problem confronting Nigeria: ‘insecurity of lives and property’.

    “The Boko Haram insurgency remains a threat to many Nigerians particularly in the North East sub region, whiles the twin evils of kidnapping and armed robbery/armed banditry remain a major national menace. The president must pay priority attention to these security issues”, the statement read.

    The Elder statesman further averred that  the economy of the country must also occupy the president’s urgent attention.

    “There is the need to be more creative in formulating policies that will improve the nation’s economy, create employment opportunities and give hope to our teaming youths.

    Read Also: US, China congratulate Buhari

    He also urged the President wish to heed to the yearnings of reasonable Nigerians for restructuring and seek all constitutional means to devolve some powers presently exercised by the Federal Government to the other tiers of government.

    Commenting on the outcome of the elections, Babangida called on the President to resist the temptation to see his co-contestants as enemies along him to work at healing the wounds of campaign exchanges.

    “The newly elected president should heal the wounds of the heated campaign exchanges by embracing those who contested alongside with him. The President must resist the temptation to see them as enemies; not even opponents, but fellow compatriots who merely disagreed with him on how best to move our country forward.”

    He expressed his admiration of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for his doggedness urging him to work with President Buhari to move the country forward.

    “I was particularly impressed with the gallant and audacious spirit of the main challenger in the presidential race, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar GCON.

    “I was not surprised that even though he lost the most exotic position of the land, his doggedness and pattern of support cut across ethnic, religious and regional lines that earned him the second position of the last Presidential election.

    “I call on the former Vice –President Atiku Abubakar to close ranks and work with the winner of the election in an objective and constructive manner so that democracy will continue to thrive in our country at this crucial period of renaissance.”

     

     

     

  • Primaries elections: We followed due process in Edo – Farida Suleiman

    Farida Suleiman has stressed that she conducted a free and fair National Assembly/State Assembly primaries for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo state.

    In a statement personally signed by Mrs Suleiman, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the open letter by the Coalition of Concerned Members Of APC Edo State which asked the President to call Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman to order.

    According to Mrs Suleiman, the allegation by the Coalition of Concerned Members Of APC Edo State is not only baseless and unfounded but a figment of the imagination of the group, whose hatchet job for the embattled State Governor is visible to the discerning.

    The statement reads in part; “When the Primaries Committee members and I arrived Edo State, an obviously concocted primaries had been conducted a day before and attempts were made by Gov. Obaseki and his aides to persuade us to adopt the results of the jaundiced primaries. We stood our ground that due process must be followed and that the guidelines for the primaries as directed by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) will be carried out to the latter.

    “This, I restarted at a press conference that was aired on major TV stations in Edo State. At the conclusion of our assignment, the results were also announced via a press conference in Benin city and not in Abuja as fabricated by the discredited coalition. It is therefore pertinent to state that I followed my conscience and performed the assignment to the best of my ability. Indeed, I stood my ground and turned down overtures made to us by the Governor and his emissaries to manipulate the process in favour of his anointed candidates.

    “Under my watch as Chairperson of the APC primaries committee in Edo State, I make bold to say that all candidates emerged through a free, fair and transparent process. The said the younger brother of the National Chairman, Seid Oshoimhole which the authors alleged was imposed on the people of Etsako West 1 for House of Assembly was unanimously elected by APC members in that constituency. There were no manipulations, whatsoever, in his favour. Those crying wolf are sore losers who are disconnected from the people at the grassroots.

    “No wonder they lost their zones and Senatorial districts to the opposition while their object of slander, the Comrade Chairman swept his own Edo North Senatorial zone for your great party.

    “Prior to my deployment for the party assignment in Edo, I have never met with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Indeed, my nomination to serve was facilitated by a reputable party leader from the North. The attempt to impute personal relationship with Oshiomhole as the motive for alleged malfeasance in the conduct of the primaries is a ploy to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    “I consider the publication with respect to myself, malicious and a veiled defamation of character. I ask that the so-called “Coalition of Concerned Members of APC Edo State” retract the mention of my name in its open letter and tender an unreserved public apology within 7 days. Failure of which, I will be left with no option than to seek legal redress.

    “The campaign of calumny against the party chairman orchestrated by sponsored groups will fail as our reformist leader will not be distracted in his mission to assert party supremacy and restore internal democracy whilst also ensuring that only performers get the party ticket at all levels.

  • APC Campaign Council to members:let’s celebrate after guber elections

    The APC Presidential Campaign Council has reminded Nigerians and members of the party that it was yet celebration time as the governorship and state assembly election was equally important to the party as the President would need majority of states to be able to successfully implement his programmes for the country

    The council said the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari and National Assembly members was only a step to actualising good governance in the country, stressing with majority of states coming under the control of the party, the developmental efforts of the President would be implemented without hitches.

    Director Field Operations Directorate of the Council, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu who spoke at a ‘thank you’ reception for members of the directorate, held in Abuja Friday told all those who have made sacrifice for the success of the party to return to the field and ensure total victory for the party in the governorship elections.

    Ribadu said “let us be very proud of ourselves. We did something that money cannot buy. We did it honestly and only God can testify to that. We didn’t invite people to even come and look at it, no. The best human being is one that will do good thing without necessarily waiting for people to take note.

    “Honestly, be proud of yourselves, genuinely! And you will see the reward of it when it will come. No good work can go unrewarded. One way or the other, it will come. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow in the morning, but certainly it is going to come.

    “We will continue to be happy for the next four years because we have done something that is going to be good for our country. We have re-elected a good man. Buhari is a good man. He is genuine. He is a fair gentleman. He is honest. He will protect our resources and will not allow bad people to cheat us and steal from our own commonwealth. He will not! And that is what we want in a leader.

    “He will not go and sell Nigeria. He will not sell whatever that we have. He will not sit with anybody to plot evil or do bad thing. He will not. There was never a day or a minute that Buhari sat down and tell us, as his own campaign council, to go and do bad things. Never!

    “He refused to allow even the traditional way of politicians taking advantage of what they have. He refused. He refused to talk to the law enforcement agencies. He refused to interfere with INEC. He said let us go and meet the people, lets sell our own product, lets tell Nigerians what we have, and if they want to buy, let them take it. It is not about money or intimidation, we would give Nigerians free opportunity and chance to decide and they decided.

    “The elections are not over yet. We still have one important election waiting for us. We just got one, presidential and National Assembly. We have another one coming, which are the gubernatorial and state assemblies. It is a very important election for the party. I want to appeal to all of us, let us take it equally very important. We have already done a wonderful job and we are capable of doing that again.

    “The work we are doing is a continuation of supporting President Muhammadu Buhari because he would need a party that has majority of states in Nigeria. He would need more governors so that he can carry on with his work and implement the policies of our party.

    “The governors would also require our own state assembly members. Governance is about team work. I therefore appeal to us, let us go back and continue with this work. It is not yet time to rest until it is over.”

  • How INEC ‘rebuffed’ PDP’s attempt to stop Buhari’s victory

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) tried unsuccessfully to get the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to pronounce Muhammadu Buhari president-elect. Vincent Ikuomola, who witnessed the drama at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, reports.

    The presidential election was full of drama. The agent for the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Osita Chidoka, appealed against announcing the winner of the election.

    Chidoka pinned his appeal on the purported disparity in figures reeled out from the total vote count.

    He also raised issues about the non-use of the smart card readers in some parts of the country. Chidoka raised four areas which he felt the chairman should consider and stop the process of announcing the winner of the poll.

    He said: “Mr. Chairman, I have four comments to make and I will sit down. Remember, what you just educated us on now, the number of voter register you published on the 21 February and the one that was used today for the elections, has a difference of 1.669million, it was 84million in February 21 and today for what we have seen as registered voter across the states put together is 82,334,107. So there is a difference of 1,669million missing from the voter register. So if you keep that one side and go back to the total valid vote cast, which you explained, particularly, Mr. Chairman, I will let you to note that in Oyo State, 137,000 people are missing from the register, in Imo State, 234,000 are missing from the register, in Abia, 139,000 and in Nasarawa, 108,000, and Lagos 256,000. These are the big states.

    “For the total valid vote cast of 27million and the total invalid vote of 1.2million, we get a total vote cast of 28 million and a total accreditation of 29million, there is a difference of  750,000 and I hear you say it is about 2% . So we put that number on a second table.

    “And then we go to the issue of the cancelled vote. Mr. Chairman, of the cancelled vote, the cancelled votes impacted 2.7 million registered voters. And if you look at the 2.793,819,6 registered voters that were impacted, the difference is 1.6 million, the 750,000 and the 2.7 million people that were impacted, it is about 5.1million votes. 5.1million votes is greater than 3.9 million votes. And I want you to know that from your summation, the APC candidate is leading by 3.9 million votes.

    “I also want you to note Mr. Chairman, that as a fundamental root of this election what you told at the beginning of the process is that where there is no card reader verification, that election is null, it doesn’t exist and we have on record many states where there are votes without card readers. So Mr. Chairman, we ask you to review the votes in Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa and Katsina. We have detailed our local governments where this card reader was not used and it is at the fundamental of this election and there may be other states, we don’t want to go into details because we are of time, we don’t want to bug you with the 36 states.

    “I also think that it is important when you mentioned that 35% voter turnout in this election, 35% is a fair number but it is strange to me that some state have 52% voter turnout, 55% in Jigawa, 40% in Yobe and there was a consistent over 40% voter turnout in some parts of the country. I don’t think it means they may be political aware and more conscious than the rest of the country but again, it forces us to look at the issue of the card reader. Where the card reader was used there were many issues that made it difficult for large quantity of people to vote. So I want to urge you Mr. Chairman, by the explanation I have given and the number I have brought together showing that there is 5.1 million vote in question, that you do not go ahead and declare the winner of this election. That you will call for a review of these areas and possibly call for a rerun in the areas where there was no use of card readers. This is why we asked you to bring out the data of what your card readers say. Our own tabulation told us that there is only about 23 million votes that possibly went through the card reader, maximum 24 million because we told our agents to tabulate for us those areas where they use card readers and our tabulation tells us about 24 million. With almost 29 million voters, again another 5 million is in question, we think did not go through card readers.

    “So, Mr. Chairman, I would like you to give careful consideration to my thoughts. These views are made as you said they are preliminary because we are just gathering this data direct from our own situation room but as we progress, depending on what you decide today, we will be making available more detailed information about this process. But I want to say that the PDP, as their agent, I am requesting you that Mr. Chairman you should not go ahead to announce the winner in this election.”

    Yakubu, however, said the votes cancelled were done in accordance with the law.

    He stressed that in the areas where votes were outrightly cancelled, the law was not violated.

    Besides, he doubted the existence of 5.1 million votes, which the PDP agent claimed existed.

    He said: “I want to respond in two ways, first the assertion that there are 5.1 million voters who could not vote and did not vote simply on account of the failure of the smart card reader. And you are right that our guideline and regulations provide for repeat elections where card readers fail. And we did so in a number of states, in Abia for instance; we did so, and in Bayelsa, quiet a number of Local Government had to repeat the elections on Sunday, we did so in several other states. But based on the figure we have seen of cancelled elections, we have disaggregated and decomposed these figures and realised that quiet a number of those figures are from places where the card readers was deliberately circumvented plus 47 of our regulations and guidelines are very clear, where the card reader is deliberately circumvented you write zero and proceed with the election, then in that case you can’t consider the votes in those area truly cancelled votes. Yes they are cancelled votes but they are deserved cancelled votes and before we finalised on the guidelines and regulations, we threw it open to Nigerians and we received comments and citizens before finalising on that.

    “So the figure that you quoted if it is from the process that took place on Saturday, if you carefully decompose these figures, you at our regulations and guidelines, and look at the provisions where the card reader is deliberately circumvented, then count zero and proceed, you may not arrive at that figure. Exactly, the commission has not arrived at that figure.

    “Secondly, you raise issues about places where the voter turnout was 49%, 55% as against the national average of 35% . 35.6% is the national average but remember that in this matter, there is no sugar cube equality in terms of participation of citizens in elections across the federation.

    “So in some places, you have 40%,50% but by the time we do the national average, it gives you what we call the national, so the 35.6% is the national.

    So if you don’t like sugar cube equality, I will say Maggie cube equality, there is no Maggie cube equality in this respect.

    There are other issues that I think since we are both speaking on the basis of preliminary findings; we better rest this at the level of preliminary findings. The work of making our electoral system robust will not end with these 2019 elections. In fact, from tomorrow, the commission will start work on 2023 general elections. So these suggestions will be very useful for the future.”

    Yakubu noted that the cancelled votes were insignificant and would have no effect on the final outcome of the poll.

    “In relation to the issues raised, there are specifically three of them that the commission wishes to make a preliminary statement on. We say preliminary statement because during collation we have not had all the time in the world to look at these issues in depth.

    “The first one is that the figures of accredited voters in relation to the vote cast were not adding up in one or two instances. We have noticed that and our preliminary investigation and analysis revealed that there are a number of figures that were coming from the field and we’re adding up and states were also adding up for a hundred and seventy-six thousand locations nationwide as polling units and voting points. From there the figures were added up first at the ward level, which we have 8809 nationwide from there to the local government where we have 774 and then the state declaration or collation Centres and FCT, making 37 before coming up to Abuja. From what we have seen the disparity cumulatively is less than 2%. It is not that substantial really.

    “Secondly, we also very strongly believe that the widespread incidence of ballot box snatching particularly in many areas after voting means that the data on the smart card readers but not backed up by actual ballot because the ballot are either hijacked, burnt down or destroyed. Therefore, the information on the smart card readers is likely to be higher than actual ballot.

    “But this is only by way of preliminary investigation. Yes we believed that there have been cancellations, however, in the case of the presidential election, the cancellation does not affect the conclusion of the process.

    On the number of registered voters viz-a-viz the figures released by the commission, yes we noticed that only in two states, Yobe and Akwa Ibom that the figures actually tally. But if you look at all the reports from all the states collation officers, they referred to total number of registered voters as collated, it is only written in bracket as collated not necessarily the total figure on the voter register we give to the states. So, because as I said they are taking from a process and that process keeps growing from one state to another, sometimes discrepancies of this nature are likely to happen. They happened in all the off season elections we have conducted, we have seen them but on the basis of observation that you have made, we looked at these figures very carefully, they don’t affect the total number of persons who voted in the election. They are well below the number of PVCs collected, in fact the voter turnout for the 2019 general elections, from the analysis we just conducted it is 35.66% that is the percentage of the voter national turnout.

    “A request was made about opening up of the commission’s hard end so that information from the smart card readers, particularly accreditation of voters can be used to verify, cross check actual vote cast in the elections.

    “And I am happy to note that the person who made the comment didn’t make the comment as a matter of right under the law rather he made the comment as a matter of openness and transparency. Since the law described the processes by which results are collated and transmitted and also the instrument conform to be used for that purpose, we believe that this discussion can continue after the conclusion of this process because you know something that should truncate this process until we are able to determine those issues.

    “Now, if we are to continue to discuss all these issues we will continue to discuss them ad infinito, there is no end to all these issues and discussions. So, we have taken note of all the observations made; we will take them into consideration, but for the sake of the process for today, I crave your indulgence to go to the main substance of why we are gathered here today. “

     

  • ‘Buhari’s re-election, victory for democracy in Nigeria’

    Tony Nwoye has described the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in Saturday’s poll as a victory for democracy and good governance in Nigeria.

    Nwoye, representing Anambra East and West Federal Constituency, stated this in a statement he issued on Wednesday in Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra.

    In the statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nwoye said that the re-election of the president was “victory well deserved.”

    “It was not just a confirmation of the people’s love for the president but an attestation that Nigerians were happy with the progress the Federal Government had made in the last four years,” the lawmaker said.

    Nwoye, who was the National Director of Youth Mobilization for Buhari Presidential Campaign Council, commended the nation’s youths for their peaceful and orderly conduct during Saturday’s polls.

    “This is indeed a historic moment. Nigerians have used their votes to show the president and our great party that they are happy with the progress the country has made under his watch.

    “This is a victory for democracy, good governance and a clear statement from Nigerians that they are ready to move to the next level with the president,” Nwoye said.

    He expressed the hope that the APC-led administration would consolidate on the achievements of the last four years.

    Nwoye, who congratulated Buhari on his victory at the poll, expressed the optimism that he would justify the renewed mandate by millions of Nigerians.

    “This is a threshold of our political history so I urge Nigerians to rally round the federal government and support the president’s commitment to take Nigeria to the next level,” he said.

    He urged the nation’s political class to put the interest of the country and party above their personal interest for Nigeria to move forward.

    NAN

     

  • Why APC got high number of votes in North-East – Ndume

    Sen. Ali Ndume, (APC-Borno South) says the relative peace in the North East contributed to the high number of votes President Muhammadu Buhari got in the area in Saturday’s presidential election.

    Ndume, stated this on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while speaking with State House Correspondents shortly after a visit to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    He said, however, that he had a higher expectation than what the party got in the North East.

    The North East Director of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council said the postponement of the election negatively affected the turnout of voters in the area.

    “First of all, let me say that in 2015, we delivered close to half a million votes for the president in Borno; giving him up 95 per cent.

    “I was thinking that we were going to improve on that; I was looking at 97 per cent and this time around, we had 836, 496; it is okay;  but I was expecting much more than that to be frank.

    “The postponement actually contributed in the reduction in turnout; so I was surprised when the PDP presidential candidate was talking about Borno.

    Read Also:  APC candidate rejects Ikpoba-Okha/Egor results

    “Last time, in Borno, we gave the president half a million; this time around we gave over 800; because we have more relative peace; in 2015, most of us were scattered all over the country, even outside as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    “This time around I was able to go and vote in my Local Government Area (LGA); I slept in my area; the last time, in 2015, we held our election in IDP camps and turn out that number of vote; this time around we went home to vote with our people and turn out the number,’’he said.

    Ndume expressed optimism that the turnout of voters would be higher in the governorship election in Borno as APC would win with a landslide.

    The former Senate leader said APC already has 64 APC Senators and is still hoping for more, adding that the party would not repeat its previous mistake in the Senate.

    “When you make a mistake, you use that mistake to improve the future; we are going to have a very good 9th assembly by God’s grace.

    “This time, the party will play its role; we have learnt from the mistake we made last time; we are not going to repeat that mistake,’’ he said.

    NAN

  • Buhari’s victory: Inter-faith clerics commence praise and worship in Abuja

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s swashbuckling victory at the presidential election is already bridging the religious divide among Nigerians.
    This was evident as Christian and Islamic leaders, under the aegis of Inter-faith clerics, joined forces to celebrate the president’s overwhelming triumph.
    Mr Buhari was returned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of main challenger Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
    In recognition of this remarkable feat, several renowned religious heads, Monday, led thousands of their followers to the Unity Fountain in Abuja to begin a three-day praise and worship program.
    Majority of these clerics  similarly organized a 40-day prayer and fast for the president’s re-election.
    Sheik Usman Mohammed, co- Chairman, NIFROP, in his remark revealed that Mr Buhari is God’s choice, calling on Nigerians to back the president with their prayers.
    “ I warmly welcome you all faithful to this thanksgiving service dedicated to the victory of president Muhammadu Buhari at the recently conducted presidential elections.
    “ As you all might know, we as a group converged at this same venue to pray in unity for 40 days for the success of the president at the elections and also for God to grant him good health throughout the electioneering campaigns.
    “ I recall that after the 40 days’ prayers, we solicited the support of Nigerians for President Muhammadu Buhari as he is God sent to deliver the country from evil.
    “ We also prayed that those with intent to cause trouble to be put to shame and their evil intentions comes to nuts. And we thank the Almighty God for his mercies upon us as a country and as a people.
    “ Brethren, the elections have come and gone, and Nigeria is still standing as one united and robust country. The elections have come and gone, and it is evident that the forces of darkness have all been defeated by the almighty God, the ruler of humanity.
    “ We are gathered here to express our gratitude to the Almighty Allah for his show of love for Nigeria, and also for putting the enemies of Nigeria to shame through the outcome of the presidential elections.
    “ My dear brothers and sisters, now that we have a President with a new mandate of 4 years, it, therefore, behoves on us not to relent on our prayers for a peaceful and successful tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari as he pilots the affairs of the country to greater success.
    “ We also have to pray for Allah the Most Merciful to grant him good health as he governs the country for the next four years. Whoever intercedes for a good cause will have a reward therefrom, and whoever intercedes for an evil cause will have a burden therefrom. And ever is Allah, over all things, a Keeper.
    “ We must come together in this period to lend our support to him as always to succeed for he needs our prayers and support.
    “ We also call on all well-meaning Nigerians regardless of their political inclinations, religion or ethnicity to extend their support to President Muhammadu Buhari for Almighty Allah has destined him that he would lead Nigeria to the promised land.
    ” My brothers and sisters, we all know “ that God indeed loves Nigeria for giving us this rare breed human in President Muhammadu Buhari. A man that exudes integrity and selflessness. A man that God has chosen to lead the people of Nigeria to the promised land. A man whose heart is so transparent.
    “ My brothers and sisters, we are indeed grateful to Almighty Allah for the great things he has done for us, and that is why we are gathered here to show appreciation and gratitude.
    “ We must know that we are duty bound to continue to pray for President Muhammadu Buhari from our various places of worship when we leave here. This is a task mandated by Almighty Allah on us to ensure that he, President Muhammadu Buhari succeeds.”

     

  • Normalcy returns to Alaba Rago produce market

    Normalcy returned to the Alaba Rago produce market in Lagos on Thursday after Wednesday’s violence that forced the traders to close shop midday.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the market, situated along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, was engulfed in crisis on Wednesday.

    Eyewitnesses said that the crisis erupted in the market on the heels of wild jubilation that greeted the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The traders defied the usual Thursday morning sanitation in the market and opened for business, following the return of peace in the area.

    Mr Tade Ogundipe, a produce distributor, said they had to open their sheds on Thursday to be able to offload their consignment and avoid being surcharged by trailer owners.

    Ogundipe said that the trailers that brought beans to the market on Wednesday could not offload their consignment because of the crisis.

    Also, Mrs Beatrice Ayuba, regretted that the jubilation, which started mildly within the market by most commercial motorcycle operators, was hijacked by hooligans.

    “The thugs among them used the opportunity to rob people of their valuables and later extended the attack to nearby communities,’’ Ayuba said.

    Meanwhile, the army operatives drafted to quell the crisis at the instance of the leadership of the market, had returned to their base, following the return of normalcy

    NAN reports that traders and customers were seen transacting their businesses in a peaceful atmosphere.

    A reliable source at the Police Command in Lagos confirmed that 37 persons were arrested in connection with the crisis.

     

    NAN

  • Presidency to supporters: don’t incite opposition

    The Presidency has appealed to the supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari not to incite the opposition party to anger as they celebrate his victory in the February 23 Presidential election.

    It also called on all candidates for the governorship and House of Assembly elections to measure their campaign words in order to ensure maintenance of peace better than what was experienced during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Congratulating the President and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the victory at the poll, Enang said that those celebrating the success should be temperate and humble in order not to do anything that could infuriate the opposition.

    He said, “Let me first of all congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the victory as president and vice president on the Next Level and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “What we as a government and a people should do is to ensure that our statements, our actions, our celebrations and our reaction to those who lost should be tempered, temperate, measured, humble and such that are not capable of inciting the other party to anger.”

    He advised those that won as senators and members of the House of Representatives to talk to their followers to speak less and work more to bring about unity and integration of those who have lost.

    “The real winners in this election are the Nigerian voters; and we are conscious that about 11 million people voted for the other party while 15 million voted for our party.

    “For the incoming members of the National Assembly, first, for the members who have been re-elected; first as Senators and members of the House of Representatives is to congratulate them; for those who are elected new and are coming in, we congratulate and welcome them.

    “We are praying that their actions should also be conciliatory. In the next election we are going in on March 9, next week, we should look at as a party and as a government, the areas and the pitfalls and address them so that there would be peaceful election.

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    “I will advise that all those who are going for the election, campaigning, the governorship candidates and the House of Assembly candidates who are going in for the elections, they should also measure their campaign words and they should maintain peace better than was maintained in the presidential and National Assembly elections.” he said

    In the forthcoming governorship and house of assembly elections, he said, tempers would likely go high because the positions are closer to the people.

    “This election is closer to the people; closer to the grassroots and tempers are likely to be higher, so they should measure their campaign actions and speeches,” he said.

    Senator Enang commended the security agencies for maintaining peace during the exercise and appealed to them to maintain the tempo.

    He said “The military agencies did well; they should maintain the tempo as they did so that their neutrality will be sustained; the police, the Army, NSCDC and all other security agencies should maintain absolute neutrality in that exercise; they should sustain that so that the credibility that has been given to this election by the monitors and the international community should be sustained.

    “Finally, I will urge the opposition party which has lost the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) to be measured in their statements and reactions and their decisions. If they have grievance, let pursue the appropriate constitutional channel of a petition.”

  • Ohanaeze congratulates Buhari

    Igbo apex sociocultural organization Ohanaeze Ndigbo has congratulated President Muhammadu Buhari for emerging the winner of the last Saturday’s presidential election.

    The secretary general of the organization, Uche Okwukwu while addressing a press conference Thursday in Enugu said Buhari’s victory was well deserved.

    Okwukwu who was with a chieftain of Ohanaeze, Prince Richard Ozobu insisted that the said endorsement of the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was not the decision of Ndigbo as there was no general meeting in that regard.

    In his words: “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo heartily rejoices and congratulates President Muhammadu Buhari on his well-deserved victory at the Presidential polls on February 23, 2019. His victory as exposed by the majority of votes cast has clearly shown that the President has been on the right course in the last four years.

    “Ndigbo are deeply happy that Mr. President secured more votes in Igboland than he got in 2015. We urge all Nigerians and the international community to accept the verdict as the election was adjudged, free, credible, transparent and peaceful and call on all not to heat up the polity through unguarded utterances and actions.”

    He reeled out the situation that led to the disagreement among the hierarchy of Ohanaeze saying that it started with the commissioning of Zik’s Mausoleum.

    He said most members frowned at the insistence of Nnia Nwodo in holding the Imeobi meeting on the day President Buhari was to honour Zik by commissioning the mausoleum at Onitsha.

    “They disrespected Zik and ignored all the governors from the old Eastern Region who were present at commissioning.

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    “And the worst of it all was that they announced the endorsement on the same day without the general meeting of members.

    “The decision to endorse any candidate should have attracted wide consultations and not a thing to be done in a hurry,” said.

    The Ohanaeze, he said, would soon pay a courtesy visit to the president in which they will congratulate him formally and present their demands.