The opposing All Progressive Congress APC in Akwa Ibom State has consoled its supporters not to lose hope in the party as it will bounce back in no distant time.
The opposition party stated this after losing at the State Governorship Election Tribunal, Thursday.
The tribunal had dismissed the petition of Nsima Ekere and the APC for lacking in merit while upholding the election of governor Udom Emmanuel, as duly elected.
“I implore our teeming supporters not to give up hope on the party but to remain faithful and steadfast trusting that we shall deploy every available judicial process to attain our quest to entrench good governance in our beloved State of Akwa Ibom,” the state chairman of APC, Ini Okopido, said in a statement issued shortly after the ruling.
Mr Okopido said as a law-abiding party with confidence and trust in the judiciary, the APC has, therefore, “taken the ruling with equanimity”.
The opposition party said its next move regarding the judgement will be determined after legal evaluation and advise by their legal counsels.
On it part, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the judgement as divine.
“Today, the tribunal of men properly constituted by the laws of our land has confirmed the divinely orchestrated, politically engineered and electorally delivered mandate of Deacon Udom Emmanuel as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State,” the PDP chairman in Akwa Ibom, Paul Ekpo, told journalists at a press briefing, Thursday, held at the party’s secretariat in the state.
“This judgment is in total agreement with the contemporary political reality existent in our state. It is not a judgment that is postulating on what ought to be, but a clear admission of what was and what is,” Mr Ekpo said, adding, “Let me reiterate as I have done at several quarters and times, that the God who has brought us this far, is capable and will certainly take us to our expected end.”
