Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has congratulated winners in the state’s local government election and the All Progressives Congress LG congress, urging them to be magnanimous in victory.
The governor conveyed his message through a statement by his Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, shortly after the release of the results of the LG election by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, on Sunday.
From the results released as at 6pm by the commission in 29 LGs and Local Council Development Areas, out of the total 33 LGs and 35 LCDAs where elections were held, APC candidates made a clean sweep of the chairmanship and councillorship election.
Similarly, Ajimobi said that he was thrilled by the peaceful and orderly conduct of the rescheduled local government congress of the APC, which was held across the 33 LG headquarters of the state, on Sunday.
He called on losers in both contests to eschew violence and to be gallant in defeat, in the realization that in every contest, including elections, there would always be winners and losers.
The governor urged APC faithful across the state to be orderly and law-abiding in their conduct, while he advised those that might be aggrieved with the outcome of the LG election and APC local government congress to explore lawful channels to seek redress.
Ajimobi said, “We have proved skeptics and the doubting Thomas wrong with the successful and orderly conduct of the local government election, 11 years after the last one was held. This is another defining moment in the life of our administration.
“I congratulate our great party, the APC, winners in the LG election and those that emerged victorious in our party’s congresses held across the LG headquarters in the state. It was through the support of all the stakeholders that we were able to surmount the initial obstacles.
“For the winners, I urge you to be magnanimous in victory and I want the losers to be gallant in defeat, knowing full well that the losers of today may be the winners tomorrow with tenacity and sense of purpose. Elections should not always be about winning, but about taking part.
“I want to admonish our party faithful dissatisfied with the LG congresses and losers in the LG election across the participating political parties to eschew unruly conduct capable of igniting crisis in any part of the state. Violence is never a proper response to losing an election because it does no one any good.
“With the successful conduct of our party’s ward and LG congresses, as witnessed by the congress committee and the Independent National Electoral Commission, I urge our party members to brace themselves for Saturday’s state congress, which will climax the process.”
Ajimobi called for restraint on the part of splinter groups that have formed internal opposition against the APC, appealing to them to retrace their steps and join hands with him to build the APC into a more formidable and virile party ahead of the 2019 general election.
