All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State yesterday rejected the result of last Saturday’s governorship election so far released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The results indicated that the Young Peoples Party (YPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party (LP) won in one, five, and 10 local government areas respectively out of the 17 local governments.
The chairman and the secretary of APC in the state and the director general of Ikechi Emenike Campaign Council, Kingsley Ononogbu, Chidi Avaja, and Uche Ogboso respectively stated this in a statement.
The statement said APC leaders have appealed to the members and supporters “to remain calm as they respond to the situation”, adding that “they were taking a critical and careful look at the situation being passed as election.”
Describing the March 18 election as a charade, it maintained that its manipulators and the beneficiaries know that the results have no resemblance to reality on ground.
“We are also aware that the orchestrated alterations of the results and allocation of votes were purposely contrived against APC. 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 it in order to diminish its high-octave popularity and acceptability across the state,” the statement said.
The statement, made available to LEADERSHIP in Umuahia, the state capital, noted that: “Their purpose is just to sustain the contrived fallacy that the party is not firmly rooted in the state.
“Otherwise, how on earth can anybody justify that LP will score 27,000 votes in Umuahia North local government area and APC 7,000. This is a very infantile exercise in vote allocation fixed against APC.”
It also referred to Ugwunagbo and Osisioma areas “where APC was allotted 375 votes and 500 respectively despite the hard work of the former state chairman, Hon Donatus Nwankpa, who worked tirelessly with others to make it a household name.”
“Are they saying that APC has no members in these areas? Even the number of our very active executive committee members from the wards to local governments are far more than the allocated votes.
“The same scenario of vote allocation played out across the other areas all to the advantage of the predetermined beneficiaries, LP 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 LP.
“All the identified places, such as Obingwa, Aba North, Aba South, and Umuahia North, among others where there was glaring over-voting should be reviewed simultaneously. The rascality of the LP and PDP in the state must not stand,” the party said.