PRESS STATEMENT BY NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS EDO VERDICT: A VICTORY FORETOLD!

14 JULY 2012 On Saturday July 14, 2012, a significant high point was made in the annals of the country's  history.  Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, despite all odds,   trounced his opponents by a landslide victory to be returned as Governor of Edo State. While he  clinched 75% of valid votes cast  with 477,478, the People's Democratic Party candidate, who was his closest rival in the elections , garnered only  144,235 votes.  Comrade Oshiomhole did not only   win the overall votes cast, but overwhelmingly won in all the Local Government Areas  in Edo State. For all  those who have followed the  twist and turns, the macabre designs, as well as mine fields put on the path of Comrade Oshiomhole at  the height of campaigns for the elections,  and the resoluteness of the Comrade Governor, workers and other patriotic Nigerians, as well as   the determination of the good people of Edo State  to ensure he continued in office as Governor, this victory is not only a triumph of light over evil forces, but a victory foretold. It is a signal to the money bags and their godfathers and  all those who believe in buying their way into office to loot the Public Treasury and consign the working people and Nigerian poor to eternal poverty and deprivation that the day of reckoning has come. It is a victory of performance, dynamism in governance  and an honest determination to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people against  graft, greed and impunity of the powers that be.  It is a triumph of working peoples power, and a true reflection of the will of the Edo people over years of orchestrated deceit, and megalomania of a decadent ruling class. We congratulate Comrade Oshiomohole , and organised workers, youths, women, professionals, informal sector workers, the unemployed and the aged persons in Edo State, who defied the ordeals and trauma of the elections  to give victory  to truth and justice in our country. it is a victory well deserved for the people of Edo State, and a triumph of democracy in our country. We  commend the Independent National  Electoral Commission (INEC), despite the hitches,  for rising up to the challenge regardless of all  pressures to listen to the voice of reason and conducting a free and fair elections where the votes of the people count. We equally acknowledge the role of security forces who resisted traditional  state interference in their call to duty, and stood by to protect lives and property of the peace loving people of Edo State while they freely  exercised their franchise at the polls. We urge   Comrade Oshiomhole to see this victory as a challenge to take up the gauntlet once more and consolidate on the remarkable gains  made the last four years in Edo State  and further expand on the dividends of democracy to the Edo people.     Abdulwahed Omar President, NLC