By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the November 6 governorship election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Anambra State, Senator Andy Ubah, yesterday differed with the party leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, as he rejected the results announced by INEC.
Ubah, in a statement issued yesterday by the Spokesperson of his Campaign Organization, Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe, said “the outcome of the election was a charade and did not reflect the wishes of the people of Anambra State.”
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had congratulated the winner of the electoral contest, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who is the candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), saying he looks forward to working with him for the larger interest of Nigeria.
However, the statement issued yesterday by Andy Ubah Campaign Organization said “Our popular candidate, Senator Andy Uba is a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by INEC in cohorts with the Willie Obiano Regime and the security forces deployed to oversee the Anambra State Governorship Election.”
It said the elections were characterised by widespread irregularities, intimidation and voter suppression in order to clear the path for the inglorious ‘victory’ of APGA in the polls.
Giving instances, the statement said “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 official announcement by INEC. Yet mysteriously, the votes announced in advance by APGA always corresponded correctly with the official figures released by INEC.
“It is inconceivable that our candidate, who polled over 200,000 votes in the APC primary election would be allocated a slightly above 43,000 votes by INEC.
“It is surprising that APGA that lost almost 80% of its stalwarts through defection to the APC before the election came out ‘victorious’. A sitting APGA Deputy Governor, seven members of the House of Representatives, 10 members of the Anambra State House of Assembly, the APGA party’s member of Board of Trustees, many serving SA’s, SSA’s, in addition to a serving PDP Senator all defected to the APC very timely before the election, yet APGA emerged ‘victorious’. This is quite ridiculous”.
Against this background, Ubah siad from all indications, the only people remaining in APGA at the time of the election were Governor Obiano and his household and a few staff of the Government House, as well as Prof. Soludo and his household, as majority of the electorates in Anambra State have moved to the APC.
He said there is no way the carcass of APGA could have defeated the APC without the active collusion and manipulation by INEC and the Obiano Administration.
“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.
“We have noted that starting from the appointment of INEC Adhoc staff, who mostly came from Calabar, to the distribution of electoral materials and the retention of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, who supervised the second term election of Governor Obiano, it was crystal clear that the game plan was to overturn the popular wishes of the people of Anambra State in the biggest electoral heist of all time in Nigeria’s political history.
“While we appeal to our 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 ground did not in any way reflect the outcome of the elections as announced by the obviously compromised INEC”, the statement said.
