APC refuses to concede defeat in Anambra elections saying it will seek to get result overturned

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate in the recent Anambra State governorship elections Senator Andy Uba has rejected the outcome of the polls and refused to concede defeat to the winner Professor Charles Soludo.

Last weekend, Anambrans went to the polls to elect a new governor and Professor Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (Apga) emerged victorious. Since the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Professor Soludo the winner, congratulatory messages have been pouring in including from his other opponents, who have all conceded defeat.

Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who came second has already congratulated Professor Soludo, as has Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party who came fourth. However, Senator Uba of the APC who came third, has rejected the result, saying it does not reflect the wishes of the people.

Jerry Ugokwe, a spokesman for the Senator Andy Uba Campaign Organisation, said: “Our popular candidate, Senator Andy Uba is a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by Inec in cohort with the Willie Obiano regime and the security forces deployed to oversee the Anambra State governorship election. 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, members of Apga's board of trustees, in addition to a serving PDP senator all defected to the APC before the election, yet Apga emerged victorious, which is quite ridiculous.”

According to the APC, in polling units where the biometric voters’ accreditation system malfunctioned, Inec went ahead to conduct the elections manually. It added that there were numerous cases where votes announced by Inec exceeded the number of accredited voters in polling units.

In addition, the APC noted that another clear manifestation of the collusion between the Obiano administration and Inec was the publishing of results on Apga's social media handles even before official announcements were made by Inec. It added that mysteriously, the votes announced in advance by Apga always corresponded correctly with the official figures released by Inec.

The APC appealed to its supporters to remain peaceful and calm, saying it will not relent in pursuing its stolen electoral mandate through all the constitutional means available. According to the APC, facts on ground did not in any way reflect the outcome of the elections as announced by the obviously compromised Inec.