Abia guber result designed to humiliate APC, says party leaders

…Rejects outcome

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Abia State chapter, has rejected the outcome of the governorship and House of Assembly election in the state, alleging that the polls were rigged in favour of Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and designed to humiliate the party.

In a statement in Umuahia, the state capital on Tuesday, March 21, Abia APC insisted that what happened during the elections were allocation of votes to the various political parties, pointing that votes allocated to the party in the exercise was lower even than the number of members of its ward and local government executives, just to create the impression that APC was not on ground in the state.

In the statement, titled: “2023 Abia Guber Election: The Worst Form of Competitive Election Rigging Between PDP and Labour Party,” Abia APC said the governorship election in the state was a sham and vowed that it would not allow the result, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, to stand as it neither reflected the actual votes cast nor the wishes of Abians.

The statement which was signed by the State Chairman, Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, State secretary, Chief Chidi Avajah and Director-General, Ikechi Emenike Campaign Organization, Chief Uche Ogboso, noted that when the good people of Abia State went to the poll on Saturday, March 18, 2023, to elect a new governor who will take over from the outgoing one, their intention was genuine.

They lamented that instead of giving Abians accurate election results reflecting the choice they had made with their ballots, the Abia electorate have been served “a concoction of allocated scores laced with shameless shenanigans.”

“Abia State All Progressives Congress (APC) rejects in its entirety, the results of the Abia gubernatorial election,” they said.

The statement reads in part; “The 2023 Governorship Election in Abia is therefore nothing but a charade. Both the manipulators and the beneficiaries of this juggling of figures know that the results churned out have no resemblance to the reality on ground.

“We are also aware that the orchestrated alterations of the poll results and allocation of votes were purposely contrived against our Party, All Progressives Congress. The allocation of figures being bandied about says much.

“It is crystal clear that the traducers of Abia APC designed the whole exercise just to humiliate APC in order to diminish its high-octave popularity and acceptability across Abia. Their purpose is just to sustain the contrived fallacy that the party is not firmly rooted in Abia.

“Otherwise, how on earth can anybody justify that Labour Party will score 27,000 votes in Umuahia North and APC 7,000 votes. This is a very infantile exercise in vote allocation fixed against APC.”

The governorship candidate of Abia APC, High Chief Ikechi Emenike, comes from Ohuhu clan in Umuahia North local government area.

The party went further to point to another curious example of the alleged rigging that took place during the Abia guber election, saying that in the entire Ugwunagbo Local Government Area, “APC was allocated 375 votes, while in Osisioma 500 votes was allocated to APC despite the hard work of the former State Chairman who worked tirelessly with others to make our Party a household name.”

“Are they saying that APC has no members in these Local Government Areas? Even the number of very active APC EXCO members from wards to local governments are far more than the allocated votes.

“The same scenario of vote allocation played out across the 17 Local Government Areas of the State, all to the advantage of the predetermined beneficiaries, Labour Party and PDP. All imaginable malpractices were employed to achieve their desired nefarious results. Abians have been treated to the worst form of competitive election rigging between PDP and Labour Party. “

The party, therefore called for the simultaneous review of all alleged cases of glaring over-voting in many local government areas, including Obingwa, Aba North, Aba South, Umuahia North, among others; just as it warned that “the rascality of the LP and PDP in Abia State must not stand!”

While appealing to APC faithful and their teeming supporters to remain calm, the party leaders said: “As a Party, we are taking a critical and careful look at the whole sham being passed as governorship election results in Abia. We shall take appropriate action in due course.”