Nigerian Lawmaker urges DR Congo opposition to accept ‘free and fair’ election results

A ranking member of Nigeria’s Federal Parliament, the House of Representatives and chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu, has congratulated the President of Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, on his imminent victory in the just-concluded presidential election.

Early results showed the incumbent Tshisekedi, with a large lead, but opposition candidates in the presidential election planned to march against the outcome in the capital on Wednesday.

Martin Fayulu, one of the main challengers to President Tshisekedi in the December 20 election, said in an interview that the opposition candidates who had called for the joint demonstration over alleged election irregularities, would proceed with the march because they were convinced the exercise was a fraud.

But, reacting, the Nigerian lawmaker, Ugochinyere, called on Fayulu and others to accept defeat and respect the popular will of the Congolese people by congratulating President Tshisekedi and call off the protest and call for cancellation.

Ugochinyere described the election as free, fair and a reflection of the decision of Congolese people.

He said the percentage of the victory by President Tshisekedi, which is over 81% with over 1.5m votes as against the leading rival Katumbi, who scored just over 284,000 votes, has shown that the DR Congo has made a bold statement of unity and endorsement of the mining reforms, free education, healthcare, and the war against militias been waged by the President and so eager and committed to see him continue to consolidate the good works.

He frowned at the call for cancellation of the election and protest against the exercise, describing such calls as been funded by bloody desperate criminals who lost their criminal mineral looting businesses as a result of peoples interest driven reforms by President Tshisekedi, hence the move to push opposition to ignite fire on the DR Congo to enable civil unrest and arm conflict which will enable them enter from the back and the middle of the bloody chaos and start illegal mining and looting of the Central African nation’s mineral resources.

He urged the people of the DR Congo to resist such unpatriotic calls and defend the mandate they gave to President Tshisekedi by boycotting any such call and rather express solidarity for the President who is a reformer and unifier.