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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Six political parties in Andoni Local Government Area, Rivers State, in the recently concluded council poll have unanimously adopted the victory of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Erastus Awortu, as the people’s wish saying the era of political godfatherism was over.
Chairmanship candidates representing the various political parties made their parties position known at a joint press conference in Port Harcourt, yesterday.
The parties also reafirmed their confidence in the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RISIEC), adding that the election was transparent and post-election litigations were unecessary.
According to their resolution read in part, “For us political stakeholders in Andoni and candidates in the contest, we can clearly state that the election was not lost, but won because PDP’s victory is our collective victory.
“We will support the new administration in its positive vision for the people. In deed, Erastus Awortu is the man for the job”.
The resolution was duly signed by chairmanship candidates from six political parties that contested in the council poll.
They included: Mr. Esuku Esuku of the Accord Party (AP), Mr. Erasmus Inemente of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr. Charles Otowo of Action Peoples Party (APP) and Amie Elisha Simeon of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Others were: Mr. Michael Dodd of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Mr. Abraham Ijong-Iye of the Zenith Labour Party(ZLP).
The PDP candidate, Awortu, recorded a landslide victory having pulled a total of 107,658 votes as against the Labour Party candidate who had the second highest votes of 4,702.
Receiving his Certificate-of-Return from RISIEC, Awortu said that the certificate was a testimonial to the high level success recorded during the election.
“I’m impressed with RSIEC for their competence during the election. I’m also impressed with my constituent for creating an enabling atmosphere for the electoral body to conduct a credible process and I assure on my commitment to repositioning the area for growth.
“We look forward to addressing our collective concerns bordering on security, infrastructure and poverty in the area”.
