Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State on Wednesday conceded defeat to the Niger East Senator-elect, Barr. David Umoru, at last Saturday’s National Assembly elections in Niger State.
Aliyu, who spoke to reporters in his office in Minna, the state capital yesterday, claimed that he called Mr. Umoru to congratulate him, however, the senator-elect refused to pick his calls or respond to his text messages.
The governor said, “I have already conceded defeat to Barrister David Umoru. I have called Umaru’s number after he was declared winner about seven times but he did not pick the calls. I sent a text, saying ‘this is the Chief Servant calling, please pick’, and I have not received a reply by now.
“I have no qualms about the defeat. I did not see my defeat as an insult to my person but as God’s will”.
Appreciating the Independent National Electoral Commission for paying attention to details, Gov. Aliyu said the electoral body should appreciate the shortcomings witnessed in the election and work towards correcting them.
He also applauded what he described as “the gentleman approach” of President Goodluck Jonathan in congratulating the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, adding that by this singular act, the president doused whatever tension that was on the ground during the collation of the results.
“President Jonathan’s approach doused whatever tension had been created. It worked to smoothen whatever rough edge the election would have created. We hope that the transition will be smooth and everyone will see a friendly handover”, he stated.
Speaking on the embarrassing defeat suffered by PDP in the hands of APC in the state, Aliyu said the result would give the ruling party a chance to re-organise and further put its house in order for the next election.
