Andy Uba Should Accept Defeat, Congratulate Soludo – Senator Umeh

The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has asked the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just concluded Anambra governorship election, Senator Emmanuel Nnamdi Uba (Andy), to concede defeat and congratulate the winner of the election, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. 

Umeh, who stated this while fielding questions from Independent Newspaper, said that accepting defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship was the most honourable thing to do, adding that such a move would help democracy to thrive in the state.

He said the political parties signed a peace accord where everybody promised and undertook that they would not do anything that would mar the credibility and integrity of the election. 

Umeh was however, of the opinion that when the APC and some other political parties found out that they were losing the election, they started casting aspersions on it and wanted to bring the election to disrepute because they did not expect that APGA would thrash them in 19 Local Government areas. 

The ex-APGA National Chairman recalled also that in 2017, the Anambra people gave APGA victory in all the 21 Local Government areas of the state. 

He said other political parties; especially the APC should concede the election to APGA and Soludo and wait for another time instead of trying to overheat the polity. 

Umeh also noted that the opposition parties knew that they would not win the election which according to him was the remote reason they started peddling the propaganda that people were defecting to their parties, adding that even those who defected to their parties lost woefully in their polling units. 

He stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did very well with the conduct of the election, saying that for the very first time, all the result sheets got to the polling units and collation centers unlike in the past when result sheets were being manipulated in the dead of the night. 

Umeh maintained that INEC had proven that no politician would use it anymore to rig elections and that election in the country would henceforth count while also extending encomiums to security agencies, saying that they were wonderful and professional in the discharge of their duty during the election. 

According to him, security agents didn’t harass nor intimidate anyone instead they were protective and also provided security for citizens who exercised their franchise during the election. 

He also admonished INEC to continue to refine their BVAs, saying that the BVAs were the best anti-rigging machines that INEC has ever developed.