Politics
APC Speaks On Challenging Wike’s Second Term Victory
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party, says it will not challenge Governor Nyesom Wike’s victory at the polls in the just concluded Rivers governorship election like the African Action Congress (AAC) has decided to.
Naija News recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared Wike winner of the governorship election last week Wednesday.
The Returning Officer for the election, Teddy Adias, made the declaration at INEC head office in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital on Wednesday evening.
Wike polled 886,264 votes ahead of Biokpomabo Awara, candidate of the African Alliance Congress (AAC) and his closest rival, who garnered 173,859 votes.
Reacting to Wike’s victory in while fielding questions from reporters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said although some local government area results were questionable, the ruling party would not challenge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Wike at the Election Tribunal because APC had nothing to do with the polls.
His words: “It is not true that APC felt hurt over PDP’s victory. We don’t have anything to do with the Rivers State election. APC didn’t have candidates in the election and that is why, from the beginning, we didn’t throw ourselves so much into it.
“You knew that the Supreme Court ruled that we were not qualified to contest. So, on that basis, whatever what happened in Rivers, whether at the local government that gave 80,000 votes during the presidential election and suddenly produced 320,000 votes for Wike during governorship election didn’t hurt us in any way.
“If INEC says that was correct, fine; it is up to the parties involved to take action if they find it necessary but for us at APC, we didn’t have the opportunity to contest unfairly in Rivers State,” Issa-Onilu said.
Naija News understands that Issa-Onilu’s statement is coming after Adams Oshiomhole, the APC National Chairman, had earlier disowned the alliance between the party’s faction in Rivers state led by Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and the AAC, to unseat the incumbent governor of the state.
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