Mr Higgins Peters, an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Cross River says the party’s victory at the Feb. 26 Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency bye-election was a product of hard work.
Peters told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Thursday that the party did not assume that it was in power in Calabar to sit back and not work for the victory.
He said the party reached out to the people at the grassroots, just as the empowerment programmes of Gov. Ben Ayade endeared the electorate to the party.
“The state under the watch of Ayade has more than 6,000 appointees; you think it is a joke? No, we campaigned vigorously reaching out to those that matter; the electorate and we won.
“As I speak with you, we have started restructuring and planning ahead of the forthcoming primaries and other very important elections; we don’t stay at the state capital to make noise.
“We go to the grassroots where we have our stronghold; I can tell you that going forward we will not take things for granted anymore,’’ he said.
INEC declared APC’s candidate at the election, Mr Jude Ngaji, winner with a total of 22,778 votes and the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Mr Mike Usibe, as runner-up with 20,590 votes.
This result is, however being contested by the PDP with claims that the election was marred by irregularities.
Peters debunked allegations that the election was marred by irregularities, violence and the use of security agents to intimidate voters.
“This was an election that we expected a landslide victory; unfortunately the PDP being an old party was on ground too.
“We won at the end of the day with just about 2,000 votes showing that the election was keenly contested and not an extermination of the opposition as we had thought.
“This is one of the best elections conducted by INEC; anyone contesting that election is just being dubious,’’ Peters charged.