PDP Gov. Candidate, Obaze Rejects Anambra Polls Result, Says Outcome Pre-Determined

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LAGOS NOVEMBER 20TH (NEWSRANGERS)-But the candidate of the PDP in the Anambra State governorship election, Oseloka Obaze who lost in Ogbaru, his local government area to Obiano, has rejected the result of the poll.
Obaze, who spoke to Punch correspondents on the telephone, described the outcome of the election as pre-determined.
According to him, the results of the local governments did not reflect the voting pattern.
When asked if he was satisfied with the exercise, the PDP candidate said, “No, not quite. This seems to be a pre-determined result because it is not consistent with the voters’ turnout and the pattern.
“It has never happened in Anambra politics that the winner wins 21 local governments. So, we need to look closely at what happened, why the incumbent governor is coming out top consistently.
“That questions whether the other candidates have no stronghold as individuals and their respective parties. There is a certain dubious consistency that, just on the face of it, is an aberration.”
Obaze said that the electoral commission had a case to answer in explaining how it arrived at the decision bordering on over-voting in some areas when accreditation and voting were done simultaneously.
He said, “INEC has to give an account on why there was over-voting, why there was inconsistency between what was uploaded and what was actually voted. If you have a higher number on the chart and there were no issues where people were fully accredited and left, then how did you have higher figures in the card readers than the voting itself?”
He also expressed concern over the delay in the announcement of the local government results.
“Because we did not do consecutive accreditation and voting, it was simultaneous, it should have saved an enormous amount of time. If you do accreditation and then voting later, it consumes more time. But that was not the case.
When one of our correspondents asked if he would challenge the result at the tribunal, Obaze stated, “Well, I am still consulting my people and I am still waiting.”
However, the incumbent Governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, who is also the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance coasted home with a landslide victory in Saturday’s Anambra governorship election.
Obiano, who won in all the 21 local government areas of the state, floored his arch rivals, Tony Nwoye of the All Progressives Congress (Anambra East) and Oseloka Obaze of the Peoples Democratic Party (Ogbaru) in their hometowns.
The Independent National Electoral Commission through the Returning Officer, Prof. Zanna Akpago, had declared Obiano the winner of the November 18, 2017 governorship election at the commission’s office in Awka on Sunday.
A native of Uga in the Aguata Local Government Area, Obiano polled 234,071 votes to beat Nwoye (APC), who came a distant second with 98,752 votes.
The PDP governorship candidate (Obaze), who lost in Ogbaru, his local government area to Obiano, came third in the November 18 contest with 70,293 votes.
The candidate of the United Progressive Party and former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka, came fourth with 7,903 votes.
While Obiano polled 6,615 votes in Ogbaru LGA, Obaze garnered 4,416 votes with Nwoye of the APC getting 3,415 votes.
In Aguata, where a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo, hails from, Obiano got 13,167 as against Nwoye’s 5,807 and Obaze’s 4,073, a result that reflected Soludo’s support for the incumbent governor.
Obiano surprisingly won in former governor Peter Obi’s local government area, Anaocha as he (Obiano) garnered 11,237 votes, while the PDP (Obi’s party) with Obaze polled 6,554. APC’s Nwoye got 5,297.
It was, however, in Anambra East, Nwoye’s local government area, that the incumbent governor’s prediction of a landslide victory for himself and his party manifested as he took a large chunk of the votes in the area.
Obiano got 20,510 votes in Anambra East, where a son of the soil, Nwoye, polled 5,248 votes and Obaze got 1,132 votes.

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