APC Rejects Abia Guber Poll, Says Votes Juggled, Allocated to LP, PDP

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State rejected in its totality the March 18 governorship election, saying that the outcome “neither reflects the actual votes cast nor the wishes of Abians.”

In its formal reaction to the outcome of the poll contained in a statement made available to the media Tuesday, Abia APC
said that the poll result being bandied about and mired in controversy should not stand.

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

Abia APC expressed its disgust with “the-so-called governorship election” in the statement signed by the trio of Dr. Kingsley Ononogbu, state chairman, Chief Chidi Avajah, state secretary, and Chief Uche Ogboso, Director-General, Ikechi Emenike Campaign Organisation.

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

The main Abia opposition described the 2023 governorship poll in Abia as “the worst form of competitive election rigging between PDP and Labour Party.”

“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,” the party said.

Abia APC regretted that the genuine intention of Abia voters to elect a new governor has been vitiated following barefaced, manipulations and allocation of votes.

“Instead of giving Abians accurate election results reflecting the choice they had made with their ballots, they have been served a concoction of allocated scores laced with shameless shenanigans.

“We are also aware that the orchestrated alterations of the poll results and allocation of votes were purposely contrived against our party, the All Progressives Congress,” Abia APC added.

Abia APC also alleged that the manipulation of the poll results was principally designed by its traducers to “humiliate” the party and diminish its high octave popularity and acceptability across Abia State.”

The party stated that the main purpose of juggling and manipulation of votes was carried out “just to sustain the contrived fallacy that the party is not firmly rooted in Abia.”

To buttress its argument, Abia APC said that it was unthinkable to suggest that Labour Party will score 27,000 votes in Umuahia North Local Government and APC 7, 225 votes, calling it “a very infantile exercise in vote allocation fixed against APC.”

“Another curious example is that in the entire Ugwunagbo Local Government Area, APC was allocated 375 votes, while in Osisioma 504 votes was allocated to APC despite the hard work of the former State Chairman, Hon. Donatus Nwankpa, 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,” said Abia APC.

“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 Abia APC called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to carry out a simultaneous review of vote figures in “all the identified places (such as Obingwa, Aba North, Aba South, Umuahia North, among others) where there were glaring over-voting should be reviewed simultaneously.”

“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.”

Meanwhile the Abia APC leadership has appealed to all its “members and our teeming supporters to remain calm as the party leadership responds to the situation.”