Awka – The Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Valentine Ozigbo on Wednesday, congratulated the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Professor Chukwuma Soludo after he was declared winner of the 2021 Anambra State governorship elections.
Ozigbo, came second in the election which was concluded with a supplementary election on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ozigbo said he has reached out to his APGA counterpart to congratulate him, wish him well and prayed for his success.
He also congratulated all the candidates in state’s governorship election, saying they have shown a determination to see that Anambra is better.
“Two years ago, I decided to go into active partisan politics with a number of objectives in mind.
“First, was to use Anambra to set an example of excellence in governance.
“The second was to unify Anambra and Ala Igbo around a shared vision of greatness.
The third was to inspire more professionals to go into politics.
“I believe that attainment of these would go a long way in changing the story of black men and women in this world for the better,” he said.
Ozigbo said driven by the vision of a better and brighter Anambra, he set out on the quest for governorship, resolute on taking revolutionary steps to address the decay and decline in security, infrastructure, education, healthcare, the environment, and all other social systems meant to serve the people.
“As laid out in our Ka Anambra Chawapu Manifesto, we planned to transform Anambra into the most competitive sub-national economy in Nigeria by opening up public, social, and commercial spaces leveraging on the strength of our youth and women, ultimately, to make Anambra the pride of Nigeria.
“Given where we started and where we are today, we consider ourselves winners.
“Our Ka Anambra Chawapu message has permeated the consciousness of Ndi Anambra, and the nation at large.
“It is the strongest message that has come out of Anambra 2021, and it continues to beat in the hearts of Ndi Igbo,” he said.
He thanked the leaders and pillars of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the national (especially the PDP Governors), state and ward levels who stood by him and worked tirelessly to win the mandate of Anambra people.
The PDP flagbearer observed that the election was fraught with a lot of short-comings on the part of various government institutions.
“The security agencies failed to provide a peaceful environment for campaigns to hold.
“On election day, they were absent from many polling centres leading to elections not holding or held in situations that allowed for chaos and fraud.
“The national electoral commission presented untrained and poorly trained staff who could not operate the voting machines in many places.
“They failed woefully in providing logistical support for their staff and so elections started very late in many places and did not hold in many others.
“The use of government funds and resources to corrupt, coerce, and intimidate voters, PDP party agents, and electoral officials, was a major factor in determining the outcome of this election.
“All of these led to the disenfranchisement of the greater percentage of voters and staining the course of democracy.
“I will be dedicating time to champion the positive change we need to ensure that future elections are truly free and fair and that the will of the electorate prevails.
“Denominational politics was also a factor and we need to do a lot more to ensure that competence is never sacrificed on this altar, and that democracy is practiced in line with its truest tenets.
“In all, I am more determined to working for a better future for our children by remaining in active politics and rebuilding our party to be more united and more robust for those who come after us,” he promised.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress, APC has rejected the outcome of the 2021 Anambra Governorship election.
The APC candidate, Senator Andy Uba came third in the election with 43,285 votes.
Speaking to TNC correspondent after the announcement of the results Wednesday morning, the APC agent, Chief Chibuzor Obiakor said the outcome does not reflect the wishes of the people.
According to him, the party refused to sign the result because it believes the entire process was marred with so many irregularities.
“Somebody has been announced but we will go back and review the process and take a decision on what to do.
“We saw that in Anambra West, Anambra East, Idemili North, Idemili South, Orumba and many other places, elections did not hold and we will look at all those and know the next line of action,” he said.
