After coming a distant third, Andy Uba rejects Soludo as elected gov of Anambra

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Anambra, Andy Uba, has rejected the outcome of last Saturday’s election in the state.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in the early hours of Wednesday declared All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), candidate, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, as the winner of the election held last Saturday.

Soludo scored 112,229 votes to defeat 17 other candidates including Uba and Vincent Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Unlike the APC candidate, Ozigbo and the Young Progressives Party (YPP) flag bearer, Ifeanyi Uba, had accepted the outcome of the election and congratulated the APGA candidate on his success at the poll.

In a statement issued on Thursday by the spokesman of his campaign organisation, Jerry Ugokwe, Uba described the results declared by INEC “as a charade.”

He added that the outcome did not reflect the wishes of the people of the state.

The statement read: “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.

“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.

READ ALSO: ‘I’m anxious for your success in Anambra election,’ Buhari tells Andy Uba

“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.

“It is surprising that APGA which lost almost 80 percent 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 and 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.”

“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.”

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