Kunle Adelabu
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian in Diasporas Commission (NiDCom), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, OON, has stated that her expectations from the Presidential election is for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be victorious in the Saturday poll.
Tinubu is facing stiff opposition from the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and that of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi among others.
Hon. Abike, who voted at the polling booth 007 Isele (Erogbogbo) House, along the Ayangbure Road, delivered the Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives elections to her party, APC, also expressed her delight at the turnout for the election.
“My expectation is that Tinubu will win and become the President of Nigeria. With the people seen here and what I have heard, I don’t see how Tinubu will not win the election”, she said.
“It’s going to be a ‘Renewed Hope’, for someone like Tinubu who has done it in Lagos and wants to replicate that at the National level. Renewed Hope is about not giving up on your tomorrow and we have made a certain progress and we want to continue that, particularly for the young people. This is your tomorrow, so take a decision and I am excited that a lot of young people are coming out”.
While commending the turnout, Hon. Abike also said that residents are showing more commitment to the electoral process which she described as the biggest achievement of Buhari’s administration.
“I have seen people that I have never seen voting before here today, and that is very exciting. It’s been orderly and we are going to come back to count our votes and ensure the numbers tally with the number of the votes”, she said.
“It portends that we are getting more involved, young, old, rich, poor, and I have seen people I have never seen which is very exciting. We should build on that and the thing is that the biggest achievement of this administration is that your vote really does count.
“This has been my polling unit for many years, but you see particularly the elderly people and the physically challenged coming out to vote. We are making progress because this is our future and you have to make the decision concerning who becomes the president and today. I think if there’s anything that the APC administration has done, it is to make sure that voting is free and fair”, she added.
Reacting on the late arrival of INEC officials to the polling booth which made the voting process start behind schedule, she said that people waited for them because it’s about their future.
“It’s worth waiting for. It may be due to a few logistics problems, but we have to wait and that is why I am voting at 11:48am. We have to wait because it’s about our future and our destiny. The thing is that, we are waiting to ensure that our vote counts; and the most important thing is that we want to see that the vote counts”, she said.
“I am so excited that I am seeing a lot of new people here”.
