The Senator Andy Uba Campaign Organisation has rejected the results of the just-concluded Anambra State governorship election that returned All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate Prof. Charles Soludo.
A statement in Abuja yesterday by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate’s campaign organisation’s spokesperson, Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe, said the outcome of the election was a charade and did not reflect the wishes of Anambra people.
Ugokwe said: “Our popular candidate, Senator Andy Uba, is a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in cohorts with the Willie Obiano regime and the security forces deployed to oversee the election.
“The elections were characterised by widespread irregularities, intimidation and voter suppression to clear the path for the inglorious victory of APGA in the polls.
“For instance, in polling units where the Biometric Voters’ Accreditation System malfunctioned, INEC went ahead to conduct the elections manually. There were numerous cases where votes announced by INEC exceeded the number of accredited voters in polling units.
“Another clear manifestation of collusion between the Obiano Administration and INEC was the publishing of results on the Social Media handles of APGA even before the official announcement by INEC. Yet mysteriously, the votes announced in advance by APGA always corresponded correctly with the official figures released by INEC.”
The campaign organisation argued that “it is inconceivable that our candidate, who polled over 200,000 votes in the APC primary election, would be allocated slightly above 43,000 votes by INEC”.
The organisation maintained: “What happened on November 6, 2021, fell far below the acceptable standard of a free and fair election and can best be described as an electoral fraud perpetrated by the INEC, Willie Obiano Administration, and the security forces.”
It appealed to its supporters to remain peaceful and calm.
“We will not relent in pursuing our stolen electoral mandate to the limit of the law through all the constitutional means available as the facts on the ground did not in any way reflect the outcome of the elections as announced by the compromised INEC,” the campaign organisation said.
Soludo, deputy to get certificate of return today
But, Soludo and his deputy will be presented with Certificate of Return by the INEC today.
The certificate will be presented at the commission’s office in Awka, the state capital.
The commission, in a statement by National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the Anambra poll was conducted under most challenging circumstances.
INEC reviews poll
The statement indicated that the commission has commenced preliminary review of the efficiency of the new technology introduced for the election.
It reads: “The INEC met today (yesterday) and conducted an initial review of the election. The commission is awaiting the reports of all officials deployed for the election for an in-depth review of the processes.”
