Why We Lost In The South, By CPC State Chairmen

THE claims and counter claims trailing the post April 16 presidential election mayhem in some Northern states, took another turn yesterday, with a group of state chairmen and other party stakeholders of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the south endorsing the election of Goodluck Jonathan.

The CPC Chairmen and stakeholders, representing the south east, south-south and south west geo-political zones noted that after a critical appraisal of the polls, they had reached the conclusion that the party lost the elections in their zones because of its ill preparedness, and not because of any kind of manipulation as being alleged by the national leadership of the CPC.

“We are honest enough to discard partisan interest, and instead admit that our party, the CPC had neither firm root nor solid branches in the three geopolitical zones in the country, and accordingly, the party did not mount any serious campaign in the three zones of the south during the recent elections.”

The chairmen therefore condemned the post-election carnage in some northern states, which resulted in the killing of 10 National Youth Service Corps members, and the related destruction of other lives and property.

In a statement, read on their behalf by the Anambra State CPC Chairman, Dr. Igwilo Sylvester, the group noted among others, that the polls witnessed a huge turnout, with security agencies rising sufficiently to meet the threat of violence, and that the candidates of the different parties demonstrated “the spirit for a new political dawn with many losers accepting to support the people’s choice in the character of sportsmanship.

“By its neutrality the Jonathan administration facilitated the work of the electoral commission, which in turn received high marks from international and local observers, as well as unbiased Nigerians.”

Furthermore, the group flayed what it called an attempt, attributed to, the Legal Adviser of the CPC, Abubakar Malami, to explain away the “serial arson and wanton murders during the riots. We condemn the reckless rationalisation by an officer of the law, who ordinarily should be a stern advocate of the rule of law.”

“It is our firm belief that if CPC supporters were truly dissatisfied with the outcome of the presidential election, it remains curious why the riots occurred only in some parts of the north. We suspect, as stakeholders of the party in the south, comprising three zones in the country, we may have been deliberately left out of the game-plan of the CPC, including post-election violence, because certain persons reasoned, and correctly too that we could never have subscribed to such evil plan to take the law into our own hands, by wasting the lives of innocent citizens.”