A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ejike Njeze, has revealed that the landslide victory of Governor Willie Obiano in the just concluded gubernatorial election in Anambra state portrays President Muhammadu Buhari as a leader whose promise of free and fair elections across the country was in good faith.
Njeze said the fact that Obiano won with a landslide showed that the President’s promise and commitment to free and fair poll was genuine.
The APC chieftain said this in Abuja on Monday while reacting to the outcome of the recently concluded gubernatorial polls in Anambra.
Recall that prior to the election, a group of Anambra state elders under the aegis of ‘Concerned Anambra State Leaders’ wrote an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari alleging plans by his party – the All Progressives Congress (APC) to compromise the outcome of the state’s election.
“Information at our disposal show that the APC has perfected plans to use the security agencies like the police, DSS, army and civil defence to submit double results sheets in place of the original and authentic result sheets collated from the polling booths at the ward levels to the INEC, which in turn will accept them, and discredit the duly certified copies from their officers in the field,” the letter stated.
President Buhari pushed back against the comments, when he assured the Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership last Wednesday in Enugu that the Anambra Election would be free and fair.
Njeze said that President Buhari has shown once again that he is a defender of democracy and the rule of law.
He said: “The outcome of the Anambra election shows that President Buhari is committed to the statement he made during his inauguration in 2015 in which he told Nigerians he ‘belongs to everybody and belongs nobody.’
“Obiano’s landslide victory clearly shows that the President has been vindicated. He is not a partial, parochial, and unfair leader as insinuated in some quarters.
“From the results of the election, it can be seen that if President Buhari wanted to interfere in the outcome of the election, all it would have taken was for him, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and Head of State, to issue instructions to certain individuals and the APC candidate, Tony Nwoye, would have been returned winner and governor-elect as was the norm in previous administrations.
“But, the President provided a level playing ground for all the candidates and political parties and also charged INEC and the security agencies to be as neutral as possible in the conduct of the election. That, I think, he deserves kudos for.”
Speaking on the President’s visit to the Southeast, Njeze said it was a positive development for the country in all ramifications.
According to him, the visit speaks volume as it practically demonstrated that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and that the President remains the father of all Nigerians and not just an ethnic group or members of a particular political party.
