Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Presidential Candidate, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has described the successful conduct of the November 6 Anambra state governorship election as a victory for people of the state
The election, which commenced last Saturday, came to a conclusion with a supplementary poll at Ihiala local government area, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo as winner
Hashim in his congratulatory message to Professor Soludo over his victory, maintained that the victory also belong to Anambra state and Nigeria, even as he saluted the “wonderful people of Anambra state who against all odds, filed out peacefully and performed their civic responsibilities.”
According to him, “our dear country Nigeria is the biggest winner. Glory to God as the country has again proved prophets of doom wrong.”
He also noted that credit must go to President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said has created the atmosphere for noninterference in INEC’s conduct of increasingly more transparent elections since his second term mandate.”
The former presidential candidate enjoined the former CBN governor, to hit the ground running, as soon so as he is sworn in, to deliver on his campaign promises as a mark of gratitude to God for this rare opportunity of service and gratitude to Anambarians who made enormous sacrifices during the election.”
“All Nigerians should celebrate this victory. Though my party APC did not come top in the final result, we can boast that our government created the atmosphere under which the votes of the electorates are beginning to count.
“Many Elders in the country led by former Head of state, General Abubakar Abdulsalam and Elders in Anambra deserve to be commended for their peace building efforts towards the election,” he said.
He also maintained that the polls success remains “a welcome coincidence that the election in Anambra was concluded just when the conference committee of the two Chambers of the National Assembly agreed on the right of INEC to decide on the use of electronic transmission of results for future elections. This will become law once the president gives assent.”
According to him, “taken with the provision of Direct Primaries for the nomination of candidates by all political parties, it is evident that our great country is irreversibly on a path to democratic consolidation.”
