The FCT Area Council election was held on 12th February 2022 in all the polling booths and wards of the Six Area Councils of FCT: The Abuja Municipal Area Council, Bwari, Kuje, Gwagwalada, Kwali and Abaji.
The election was adjudged one of the freest Area Council elections ever conducted in FCT by independent observers and accredited monitors.
The election for the soul of AMAC Chairmanship was keenly contested between the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu and the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Alhaji Usman Murtala Karshi.
At the end of the exercise, the Returning Officer, a distinguished scholar of high repute of the University of Abuja, Prof. Sani Saka declared the candidate of the PDP winner of the election having polled a total of 19,303 votes to defeat his closest rival, the APC candidate who polled 13,240 votes, a difference of 6,062 votes which in all estimation is huge.
It is therefore surprising, that the APC candidate and other political parties rather than accept the wishes of the people of AMAC who spoke clearly through the ballot box on 12th February, 2022, has decided to throw caution to the winds by coming up with spurious claims against the choice of the Chairman-elect of AMAC.
It is high time politicians began to accept defeat in any election and prepare better for the next round of election instead of casting aspersions – on the character of a man God has chosen to superintend on the affairs of AMAC in the next dispensation.
The APC alleged that Hon. Christopher Zakka falsified his age out of desperation to reap where they did not sow. As God would have it, that allegation was squashed because it was unfounded.
Having failed in that attempt to discredit the character of a humble homosaipen whom God has decided by divine arrangement to provide leadership for the people of AMAC from 20th May, 2022, the APC has changed the goal post by trying to use the election tribunal to cause collateral damage to the Chairman – elect of AMAC.
To this effect, they have come up with the issue of over voting in seven wards in the Area Council including the stronghold of the APC Candidate, Karshi, where they beat the PDP candidate with over six hundred votes.
From the grapevine, it is being speculated that the APC candidate and his supporters are trying to influence the Tribunal to declare a re-run in the seven wards where they alleged that over voting took place.
Indeed, this is a clear politics of bitterness and calumny. The APC and their co-travellers should be gallant losers as in every contest there must be a winner and a loser.
The people of AMAC had spoken and God has endorsed the emergence of Hon. Christopher Zakka as the Chairman elect of AMAC; a man of destiny, a detribalized Nigerian, a man with requisite cognate experience to lead AMAC for three years in the first instance and recontest for the final term in office.
The actions of the APC and their cliques are serious distractions to the people of AMAC who are yearning for infrastructural development and are looking forward to the incoming administration of Hon. Christopher Zakka as the elixir to their woes.
Those who are scheming to use the Tribunal to avert justice against the will of the people must be wary of their action. The issue of over voting is just a figment of their imagination because they want to win at all cost outside the ballot box.
These charlatans should not take the electoral tribunal for granted as the tribunal is made of highly respected Jurists who can never be compromised.
The members of the tribunal will certainly carry out their assignment dispassionately knowing fully well that is a national assignment where justice must prevail.
It is germane at this juncture to commend the Chairman – elect of AMAC, Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu for his calm disposition and for setting his eyes on the ball.
He has not allowed these allegations to distract his attention, rather he has engaged in wide consultations with relevant stakeholders on how to do things differently for the good people of AMAC.
He is indeed tested and proven, hence the Chairman elect is more interested in those things that will unite the people and not divide them, the way APC candidate and other political parties are doing.
Though a young man, the maturity of the Chairman elect of AMAC shows his political sagacity. Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu remains one of the best elected councilors ever served in AMAC.
I therefore call on the APC candidate in the just concluded AMAC Area Council election, Alhaji Usman Karshi and other interested parties in that election to embrace peace and join forces with the Chairman elect of AMAC in order to enable him provide the dividend of democracy for the residents of AMAC. The era of politicking is over, it is time to work and unite the people for a common cause.
The truth therefore is that what God has not given to any man, not even a tribunal can say otherwise, because the people of AMAC had spoken and so shall it be.
The voice of the people is the voice of God.
By Chidera Okonta
