Former Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has congratulated Senator Magnus Abe, winner of Rivers South East senatorial rerun election, held last Saturday.
Abe of the All Progressives Congress was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, after he polled 125,938 votes to defeat his main opponent, Olaka Nwogu of the Peoples Democratic Party, who secured 25,394 votes.
Abatemi-Usman, who just returned from Ghana as a long-term ECOWAS election observer, described the outcome of the Rivers South East senatorial rerun poll as a great victory for the entire people of Ogoniland and triumph for democracy.
He said, “I congratulate Senator Abe of the APC for his landslide victory in the just concluded Rivers South East senatorial rerun election.
“The outcome of the election is, undoubtedly, a victory for the Ogoni people. It is a great victory for democracy. More importantly, it has revealed the impunity with which the 2015 election in Rivers State was conducted and the manipulations therefrom, where a particular party cleared all the National Assembly seats in the state.”
He assured that the people of Rivers South East senatorial district will not regret their decision, as he said Abe did not let them down in the previous term he served in the Senate.
He added that he could attest to Abe’s valuable contributions on the floor of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly, as his former colleague, even as he wished the senator huge success as he returns to the red chamber to continue from where he stopped.
He equally commended former governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, for his role in the election of the APC candidates that emerge victorious in the Rivers rerun polls.
“The outcome of the Rivers rerun elections has clearly revealed a lot more about the leadership and acceptance of Amaechi in Rivers States politics, as against the widely condemned outcome of the 2015 elections in Rivers State.”
