By Clifford Ndujihe

THE Abia State All Progressives Congress, APC, has described last Saturday’s governorship election in the state as “the worst form of competitive election rigging between PDP and Labour Party.” 

“The so-called gubernatorial election result announced by INEC neither reflects the actual votes cast nor the wishes of Abians,” Abia APC said in a joint statement by Dr Kingsley Ononogbu, chairman; Chief Chidi Avajah, secretary; and Uche Ogboso, director-general Ikechi Emenike Campaign organization.

It said: “When the good people of Abia State went to the polls on Saturday, March 18, 2023 to elect a new governor, who will take over from the outgoing one, their intention was genuine. But 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. Abia State All Progressives Congress rejects in its entirety the results of the Abia gubernatorial election.

“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. 

Another curious example is 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 LGAs? Even the number of very active APC Exco members, from the wards to local governments, is far more than the allocated votes. 

The same scenario of vote allocation played out across the 17 LGAs 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. 

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. We appeal to all members of Abia APC and our teeming supporters to remain calm as the party leadership responds to the situation.”