A senior member of Nigeria’s House of Representatives and the head of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere Ikeagwuonu, has praised the President of Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, for his overwhelming victory in the recent presidential election.
President Tshisekedi had a huge lead in the early results, but some of his opponents in the December 20 election planned to protest against the result in the capital on Wednesday.
One of them, Martin Fayulu, said in an interview that they would go ahead with the demonstration because they believed the election was rigged.
However, Ugochinyere, urged Fayulu and others to concede defeat and honour the choice of the Congolese people by congratulating President Tshisekedi and calling off the protest and the demand for cancellation.
Ugochinyere said the election was fair and free and reflected the will of the Congolese people.
He pointed out that President Tshisekedi won more than 81% of the votes, with over 1.5m votes, while his closest rival Katumbi got only about 15%, with over 284,000 votes. He said this showed that Congo had expressed its unity and support for the President’s reforms in mining, education, health, and security.
He condemned the call for cancellation and protest, saying it was sponsored by ruthless criminals who had lost their illegal mining and looting activities due to the President’s reforms that served the people’s interests. He said they wanted to incite violence and chaos in Congo to resume their illicit operations.
He called on the Congolese people to reject such unpatriotic calls and uphold the mandate they gave to President Tshisekedi by ignoring any such call and showing solidarity for the President who is a unifier and a reformer.
