Anambra Election: As Andy Uba Heads To Court, "Don’t Allow Repeat Of Imo Supreme Court Scenario" Nigerians Tell Buhari

Senator Andy Uba Campaign Organization has declared that the result of the just-concluded Anambra state governorship election is unacceptable to them. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on 10th November, 2021 declared Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo winner, having polled a total of112,229 votes to defeat his closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 53, 807 to emerge second. Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate got a total of 43,285 votes to emerge the third position. It is reported that all other 16 governorship candidaates have congratulated Prof. Soludo on his victory except Andy Uba who came third and wish to challenge the official outcome of the election.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe, the group alleged that the candidate of the APC “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 statement in part read “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!”

According to the statement, 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 but majority of the electorates in Anambra state have moved to the APC.

“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.”

The campaign group appealed to the APC supporters to remain peaceful and calm, saying “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.”

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has been charged to ensure that the Imo State governorship election scenario that led to the emergence of Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC as Governor, does not play out in Anambra State.

Recall that on 14 January, 2020, the Supreme Court declared Uzodinma winner of the 2019 governorship poll in Imo State nullifying the election of Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. to the shock of many Nigerians.

The governorship election came to an end in Anambra State on Tuesday with a supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area of the State.

In the early hours of Wednesday 10th November, 2021, Mrs. Florence Obi, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar and the Returning Officer for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Prof. Charles Soludo, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, winner of the polls.

While some political analysts and experts believe that the electoral umpire failed to organise a 21st century standard election in Anambra State, others feel that INEC did fairly well, if not for anything carrying on with the polls despite the security challenges in the South East.

More importantly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman in Anambra State, Mr. Basil Ejidike, had called for the cancelation of the election even when it was yet-to-be-concluded.

The party accused APGA of rigging the election, in connivance with “corrupt-minded INEC officials”, declaring that the Supreme Court will determine who becomes Governor of the State.

“Ndi Anambra wants an APC Governor and there’s nothing anyone can do to deny them that opportunity.

“We virtually won in all the local governments, but Willie Obiano and Charles Soludo, through instrumentality, corrupt-minded INEC officers, subverted the whole process in favour of APGA.

“We want INEC to cancel the election and fix a date for a fresh election devoid of manipulations and malpractices,” he said.

Following this claim, political, public affairs analysts and Nigerians on the streets pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow the Supreme Court scenario that installed Senator Hope Uzodinma as the Governor of Imo State to repeat in Anambra.

According to them, Anambra people came out to vote for their leader despite the insecurity situation in the state and the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Presidency must respect that. They believe that it was the will of Anambra people that prevailed.

They are of the opinion that despite the fact that the commission failed in some areas such as the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, late arrival of materials to polling units, late arrival of officials and even non-arrival of INEC staff in several polling units, the election was generally free and fair.