General John Nanzip Shagaya, the Plateau Southern Senatorial Zone candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC, in the March 28 National Assembly election, has vowed to contest the result in tribunal to reclaim the mandate he believes he rightly won.Shagaya contested alongside Gen. Jeremiah T. Useni (rtd),who was returned as the winner of the election. Shagaya believes the election wasfull of irregularities which affected over 15,000 votes that was destroyedby angry mobs in Namu town .The general praised Nigerians for coming out en-masse for the election and expressed excitement over thevictory of the candidate of the APC, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and also commended President Goodluck Jonathan for being a statesman by conceding victory in the keenly contested presidential election. Meanwhile, he said the election generally is the best in the history of Nigeria after the one of June 12, 1993,a position opposed by Bishop Charles Igbele of Holy Spirit Mission Church, Lagos in a separate interview.What’s your take on the just-conducted elections?I want to honestly commend Nigerians from all sectors of the economy especially all those who have the time to come out en-masse to vote. I also commend Nigerians across the country for coming out to contribute in the expected change the country required and making that change a reality. I also admire the media houses for their fair reports throughout the period of the campaigns and the elections and of coursethe politicians. I will appeal to those who have lost that they should go through the due process of law to reclaim their mandate. The whole world has commended Nigeria for the conduct of the elections. We have also learnt a big lesson from the 2015 general elections and hoping that 2019 will be much better.Would you say the elections were free and fair?They can only be compared to the 1993 election which would have been the best election but for the annulment. I think so because, Abiola was from the South-west and he won many regions, likewise Buhari in this year’s elections. And I think, Nigerians really went for change because this man (Buhari) is incorruptible and fearless. He is one man who, in 1984, when the World Bank decided that we must swallow hook, line and sinker heavy conditionality in Nigeria, stood up and said he must consult his country as Nigeria must not be judged on western values because we are a developing nation. As time went on, you know what happened when we began to bite the conditionality of the World Bank. When he made this speech in 1984, the Naira was equivalent to 2.2 dollars. Today, you need a basket of naira to buyone dollar.Those are the qualities he has. He is a man that most Nigerians would want to rule this country. Of course, democracy is a game of numbers and I know that all of us from different backgrounds who love this country will say that we have someone we respect and will be respected by the continental bodies. Since Nigeria cannot operate in a vacuum, we need someone that the world can accept for us to develop and progress together. There is no doubt that our leaders have done the best from the beginning in 1960 and even the struggle for independence through the civil war until the last few years. All I believe that the friends of Buhari are saying today is that we are declining instead of climbing to the top of the ladder. This is where the entire world did not expect us to be.We got the change we required and I congratulate Nigeria. APC doesn’t have the money the current ruling party has, yet we won.What can you make of the belief in some quarters that the INEC Chair, Prof. Jega, rigged the election to favour Buhari?I cannot hold brief for any individual. Nigeria required change and voted for it. I have already congratulated Nigerians who have come out to vote and all those who have contributed to the success of the election including INEC and the media houses. I also said that besides the June 12, 1993 election, this was the best and I made my reasons very clear. What I want to also say is that those who are aggrieved should go to court. In my area, there were irregularities that led to the destruction of some votes and I believe that affected me. So,I am aggrieved . I contested the senatorial election and the result is not acceptable to me. My lawyers are already filing papers challenging the result of the election. There was an issue in my area which affected over 15,000 votes to be destroyed by amob in Namu town. I observed that some PDP voters were encouraged to vote without their PVCs, introducing kangaroo result for a poll that didn’t take place. My happiness here is that when these issues will be presented to the tribunal, INEC should be able to sieve the number of registered voters from fake ones as well as those with the PVCs . Secondly, the number of PVCs released to every local government and captured in every polling units as against votes cast can be determined. In my own case, I believe government also assisted in manipulating the process to favour General Useni.Some of the sitting local government chairmen in the south manned by the PDP suddenly became returning officers of the election thereby bypassing the APC agents and taking the result straight to the headquarters in Jos. This led to a lot of manipulation because in the local governments where the misbehaviour took place, they ought to realize that result must be submitted in EC8 forms which must be signed by agents of all political parties and the returning officers.Voting in about four local governments in the southern senatorial district was not done. In any case, I believe that INEC should be able to sieve that result and throw the chaff in it away. The sitting election tribunal should decisively take a decision based on the overwhelming evidence at our disposal.There are very serious issues the Resident Electoral Commission has to address as a matter of fact; for instance, the result of South Plateau should have been announced at a particular location but I was in Shendam when the result was yet to be announced; all we were told was that the returning officer had disappeared, then, we heard on radio that they had announced the result. But I am happy that most of the National Assembly election result should be separated and treated separately.INEC headquarters in Abuja under Professor Jega will compare the result they received through the websites they placed throughout the country that collected and connected through the card readers. That will confirm some of the fears that we have raised. We are already armed with the facts to separate the chaff from the grain of the number of registered people and those with PVCs as recorded by INEC through the REC of Plateau to the southern senatorial district.The release of the record by card readers as against the ballot count cast, in the southern senatorial district, is a very temporal mandate, a stolen mandate and if INEC doesn’t return the mandate, the constituted election tribunal will certainly do so to APC.What do you have to say about Jonathan conceding defeat?I have commended him for that, it was very magnanimous of him. This is the first time such a thing is happening not just in our country, but also in Africa as a whole. A sitting leader conceding victory to the opposition. We pray for long life and good health for Jonathan for him to continue serving humanity the way he has demonstrated. President Goodluck Jonathan is a statesman by conceding victory in the keenly contested election. He has by that single act demonstrated the spirit of statesmanship.
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