Unbothered that the National Leader of his party and President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, has congratulated Professor Charles Soludo, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on his victory in the Anambra Governorship election, Senator Andy Uba, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, has rejected the results that placed him third on the table.
His campaign organisation described the election’s outcome as “a charade and did not reflect the wishes of the people of Anambra state.”
On Wednesday, Buhari congratulated Soludo and enjoined him to rally other stakeholders to tackle the enormous challenges confronting Anambra State and the Southeast.
Buhari’s congratulatory message to Soludo reads: “I congratulate Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) — and a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Committee (PEAC) — on his victory in the Anambra State gubernatorial election.
“I commend the security agencies for their determination to ensure that the election went on as smoothly as possible, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the successful conclusion of the exercise, despite the initial challenges encountered.
“I enjoin Prof Soludo to rally other stakeholders to tackle the enormous challenges confronting Anambra State and the Southeast in general.
“I look forward to working with him for the peace, security and development of Anambra State and the entire country”.
In a statement in Abuja on Thursday, Andy Uba’s campaign organisation, said he was a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by INEC, the administration of Willie Obiano regime and security agents that oversaw the Anambra State Governorship Election.
“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.
“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!…
“There was definitely 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.”