The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi is revelling itself in President Muhammadu Buhari’s Wednesday’s victory at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, the state’s party Chairman, Mr Eze Nwachukwu, has said.
Nwachukwu, who said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abakaliki, said the victory was for all Nigerians.
“The party is also celebrating the victory of its House of Representatives Candidate for Ikwo/Ezza South, Mr Chinedu Ogah, in the National Assembly Petition Tribunal sitting in Ebonyi,” he said.
Nwachukwu told NAN that the party was not surprised over President Buhari’s victory because Nigerians massively voted for him.
“The tribunal affirmed the votes of Nigerians and has in the process, restored their confidence in the judiciary and hope in its democracy.
“We followed the tribunal’s proceedings and saw how it painstakingly reviewed the submissions before it, basis of arguments, what transpired in the elections among other facts.
“Buhari is not new to the Nigerian political landscape as he contested severally in the past, garnered real votes running into millions which were duly uploaded,” he said.
Nwachukwu said that such process was glaring in 2015 and the then President Goodluck Jonathan saw it and decided not to contest the result before the tribunal.
“We all expected the opposition party’s presidential candidate to do same but since he approached the tribunal which is his constitutional right, the verdict has however, vindicated the president.
“The commoners in Nigeria are particularly happy over this victory having been benefiting from the president’s several empowerment schemes such as “Trader Moni” for traders and “N-Power” among others.
“They know that such programmes would have been stopped if the reverse was the case as over 12, 000 people benefit from the N-power programme in Ebonyi irrespective of party affiliations,” he said.
He advised the main opposition party not to waste its resources at the Supreme Court.
“This is the same way the appeal court will affirm the victory of our House of Representative candidate for Ikwo/Ezza South Constituency, Chinedu Ogah, declared winner by the tribunal on Monday.
“There was no ambiguity in the tribunal’s verdict as it corroborated the documentary evidences before it and did the needful.
“It will ultimately instruct the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue the certificate of return to our candidate and we are ready for the ensuing celebrations,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to continue supporting Buhari as he remained committed to bring succour and upliftment to them in spite of the activities of detractors.
