All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the just-concluded Aba North/South federal constituency by-election, Mascot Uzor Kalu, has urged his supporters and APC members to accept the result and remain calm.
In a statement, he said the by-election was over and appealed to APC members to accept the outcome of the election in good faith while appreciating them for making the party stronger in Abia.
He said while the PDP wanted the election at all costs, “we chose life over bloodshed and, therefore, won lives and lost the polls. To us, that was a victory.”
Kalu said the level of thuggery, violence and rigging that occurred in the election called for a deeper review of the country’s electoral laws.
“Nigerians should support the electoral law being amended as it would assist us in getting our democracy strengthened. The electoral law renders the security agencies with arms weak in the face of violence at the polls and, therefore, needs a revisit. Granted that the armless police should be inside the polling units, the armed should be within 50 meters away from the units.”
Kalu accused PDP of flooding Aba North/South with thugs numbering over 20,000, while traders were threatened with text messages to keep away or lose their lives.
“My campaign officers and our party agents were kidnapped, even the Resident Electoral Commission, Joseph Iloh, was manhandled by thugs at the Abia polytechnic.
“We campaigned vigorously and Aba people were expectant of improvement from what the late Ossy Prestige of blessed memory did. My only concern is that Aba people lost. They lost a quality representation and chance to have added infrastructure in Aba.”
The APC candidate said he was winning in more than 400 polling units “and they kept using thugs to harass INEC officials and scare our voters. Our voters ran for their lives. In a city with over 497,000 voting strength, less than 15,000 votes were recorded in the entire election.”
He commend INEC and security agents while congratulating them for their services and the risk they took to protect the citizens.
“I also thank the National Chairman of the Caretaker Extraordinary Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni, Aba North and South party chairmen and our party faithful for their support in the election.”
He said despite the fact that he and APC have “enough evidence to reclaim our mandate, we won’t be going to the court. This is to allow the declared winner to concentrate and provide good representation and infrastructure to the people of Aba.”
