Delta: Jonathan’s supporters yet to come to terms with his defeat

It was lamentation galore by sympathisers of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State on Wednesday following his defeat by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, General Muhammadu Buhari, in weekend’s election.

The disturbance on the faces of President Jonathan’s backers showed that the magic-wand of the rival party upset them.

The supporters, who besieged the emergency meeting of PDP Elders, Leader and Stakeholders summoned by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State in Asaba, could not believe that their party would vacate the Aso Rock Presidential Villa and that their close relation, a Niger Deltan, would soon return home.

While a sympathiser heaped the blame of the President’s failure of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, others accused him of compromising the election.

Hon. Tony Ezeoba, a PDP supporter, lambasted the leaders of the party, especially in the South-South region, for leaving Jonathan to his fate.

Ezeoba said: “Who are the people defending the cause of Jonathan’s re-election? They are not even his close relations. Governor Ayo Fayose and Femi Fani-Kayode did their best for him. How many of our elders here, except Chief Edwin Clark, boldly came out to fight his course? Now, all of us have gone astray.

“Before the face-off between the President and Governor (Rotimi) Amaechi resorted into joining APC, what did our leaders do? As it is now, it is not only Jonathan that lost the race. We are all losers.”

Another sympathizer, who does not want his names mentioned, expressed grief that APC sacked Jonathan unprepared.

He said the petitions about the fraud in Kano, Katsina and Kaduna States should not be treated flippantly, urging the party to commence the race of reclaiming their mandate in the three states.

“We have since expressed our disdain about the results that were brought in by some Collation Officers in the Northern parts of the country but the INEC chairman ignored them and treated APC’s complaints with dispatch,” the source lamented.

Even after the emergency meeting, supporters of Jonathan and the PDP were gloomy, complaining about the power that just left them.

The well-wishers of the President and the party could still not come to terms with his defeat by Buhari as at press time.

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