Don’t go to court against Soludo – Ex-governorship aspirant tells Uba

Rommy Okoli, a former governorship aspirant in Anambra, has advised Andy Uba to accept the result of the just-concluded governorship poll.

Charles Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), defeated Mr Uba of the All Progressives Congress and 16 other candidates in the election. Mr Uba has, however, rejected the election outcome, and has vowed to challenge it in court.

Mr Okoli, a chieftain of the APGA, described Mr Soludo’s victory as “profound and widely accepted by Anambra people and lovers of democracy”.

He said this during an interview with reporters on Wednesday in Awka.

He urged Mr Uba, who came third in the election, to drop his plans to contest the outcome in court.

“I am certain that Uba will not achieve anything by embarking on litigation against Soludo, who won the election.

“Doing that will instead make people hate him more.

“Anambra people have spoken in unison, I congratulate the winner and call for restitution, reconciliation, reconstruction and rebuilding of Anambra that everyone will be proud of,” he said.

Mr Okoli urged other contestants in the poll to support Mr Soludo in the interest of peace and progress of Anambra.

According to him, there is so much work to do, hence the governor-elect would not need distractions.

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“Dragging the governor-elect to court by anyone will be counter-productive and indeed a distraction,” he said.

He said the Bimodal Voter Authentication System used by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the poll hampered the electoral process, but that “it had a universal effect on all the candidates.

“It is true that INEC performed below expectation but their inefficiency affected all the candidates, Soludo was not responsible for the challenges.

“The election has come and gone and a winner emerged.

“It is now incumbent on all the good people of Anambra and friends of the state to rally round the governor-elect,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Mr Okoli, whose aspiration ended at the APGA screening stage, later endorsed Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party, before the election.