APC boasts more PDP victories will fall

No, Mark will win again, says PDP

Against the background of the recent Court of Appeal ruling that upturned the election of former President of the Senate, David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Mr. Osita Okechukwu, has said that other supposedly dubious electoral victories recorded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the March 28, 2015 elections, especially in the Southeast geopolitical zone, would also crash.

Okechukwu, who spoke to The Guardian on telephone, praised the Appeal Court judges and expressed optimism that similar judicial review of the outcome of the last general elections would expose the massive vote heist that attended the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the zone.

He added that despite alleged desperate attempts to arrest the tribunal judgment on the petition filed by the People for Democratic Change (PDC) candidate for the Enugu-East Senatorial district, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani against the return of Senator Gilbert Nnaji as the winner of the election, Senator Nnamani would emerge victorious in a re-run election as ordered by the Tribunal.

Okechukwu revealed that despite the fact that the APC fielded a candidate for the Enugu East Senatorial election, the party had a tactical arrangement with former Governor Nnamani, who contested on the PDC platform stressing that the consensus opinion of virtually every voter in Enugu East before the election was that Dr. Nnamani was the candidate to beat.

But in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, PDP declared that both the party and the people of Benue South are solidly behind the former Senate President, stressing that the support would enable Senator Mark to repeat his electoral victory in the rerun election.

While describing Mark as an asset to the nation, PDP said it was optimistic that the ardent support of people of Benue South Senatorial zone as members and supporters of the PDP since 1999 would remain steadfast in giving their senator another resounding victory.

“The confidence of PDP retaining the Senatorial seat is even stronger now that the deceit of the APC has become obvious to all Nigerians. The inexplicable ruling of the Appeal Court, even when all evidence pointed to Mark’s victory as upheld by the lower tribunal, is yet another evidence of APC’s dangerous interference in the judiciary, which negative consequences the PDP has continued to alert the nation,” the statement noted.

It described “the significant contributions of Senator Mark in growing and stabilizing the nation’s democracy through his mature, responsible and patriotic leadership of the Senate”, as a value that is still highly needed in the polity.

PDP therefore enjoined its supporters and faithful in Benue South to resist any attempt to intimidate them, especially in their determination to ensure effective and result-oriented representation in the Senate.