All Progressives Congress candidate in the just concluded November 6 Anambra State Governorship Election, Andy Uba, has said that preliminary check showed that he has grounds to challenge INEC declaration at the tribunal in line with the electoral process.

He also cautioned members of his party not to engage in finger-pointing and blame game as to what went wrong but to remain focus.

The APC candidate, in a statement on Wednesday, titled, ‘Andy Uba thanks Ndi Anambra, supporters’, said, “At times like this, there is always the tendency to resort to finger-pointing and self-blame regarding who did what or who did not do to ensure a successful outcome for our gubernatorial quest, but I’d like to say here and now that, that should not be the topic. There is, perhaps, the more urgent need to focus on the goals of a better Anambra, which was the basis of this aspiration in the first place.”

“Now that INEC has declared the result and announced the APGA candidate, Professor Charles Chukwuma as winner, I urge that we remain law-abiding. Having met with my team, party hierarchy, etc and analyse data from our field officers, we can boldly state that preliminary check shows that we have grounds to challenge INEC declaration at the tribunal in line with the electoral process,” he concluded.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that All Progressives Grand Alliance candidate, Chukwuma Soludo won the election with 112,229 votes beating Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party, who polled 53,807 votes, and Uba of APC who got 43,285 votes. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party who polled 21,261 votes came fourth.

While Soludo won 19 local government areas, Ozigbo and Ubah won one each. The APC candidate, however, did not win any of the local government areas in the South-East state.

The candidates of the PDP and YPP have since congratulated Soludo but the APC candidate was yet to concede defeat and has rejected the outcome of the poll. He had also served notice of his intention to challenge Soludo up to the Supreme Court.

During the buildup to the election, some aggrieved members of APGA including a former candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji, had defected to the APC after the Supreme Court in Abuja sacked him and affirmed Soludo as APGA governorship candidate.

Also, the incumbent deputy governor of Anambra State, Nkem Okeke, had defected to the ruling party from APGA.

Many observers had thought the APC would pull some weight in the election as some political juggernauts left their camp for the ruling party but the APC candidate failed to win a local government in the 21 LGAs in Anambra.