The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Saturday, November 6 governorship election in Anambra State, Andy Uba, may be at crossroads with President Muhammadu Buhari over the outcome of the governorship election. The APC candidate may be questioning the judgement of the president and other APC leaders, including those in Anambra State, who had accepted the result of the Anambra governorship election and had congratulated Prof. Charlse Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on his victory in the election.
Many who congratulated Soludo after the election, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting transparent, free, and fair elections in Anambra.
Andy Uba, on a self-assessment of his popularity, protested that the result of the election did not reflect the people’s wish at the polls, thus, rejected the result, threatening to file a suit at the tribunal.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Valentine Ozigbo, had congratulated Prof. Soludo, who was on Friday given the Certificate of Return by the INEC, on his victory in the election.
The Andy Uba Campaign Organization, in a statement by the spokesman of the Organisation, Jerry Ugokwe, declared that its candidate was a victim of widespread electoral fraud by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State.
According to the Andy Uba Campaign Organisation, its popular candidate, Senator Andy Uba, was 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 Uba organization stated that the election was characterised by widespread irregularities, intimidation, and voter suppression in order to clear the path for the inglorious ‘victory’ of APGA at the polls.
The organization cited: “For instance, in polling units where the Biometric Voters’ Accreditation System (BVAS) malfunctioned, INEC went ahead to conduct the elections manually.
The organization maintained: “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.”
The organization announcing its own result for the Anambra governorship election declared: “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.”
Again, working on disillusionment of political machination, the Uba Organisation, further protested: “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!”
Unfortunately, the Uba Organisation, at the time recruitment or harvesting political leaders in Anambra State for the November governorship election, perhaps, did not remember to check the political capital of the recruits from other political parties to stabilize the APC in Anambra. Most political actors do not win elections on their merit but on the strength of the political party that sponsored them in the election. Apparently, the party won the elections and not the candidates. there are tendencies that the political recruitment for the election may have been wrongly done.
The Uba organization, however, protested: “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, but majority of the electorates in Anambra State have moved to the APC.”
The organization, therefore, declared: “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 ad hoc 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.”
One basic issue that was crystal clear in the Anambra governorship election was the absence of the use of federal might for the ruling party candidate, which ensured transparency of the election.
Interestingly, Andy Uba finished third in the election behind Ozigbo of the PDP. Nigerians are waiting for the proceedings at the tribunal and other courts in the Uba case. Perhaps, relying on the Imo governorship election judgement at the Supreme Court to upturn the INEC result and become the governor of Anambra State at the end of Obiano’s tenure.