Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Andy Uba Wins Close Senatorial Race

http://news-and-entertainment.blogspot.com has confirmed that Andy Uba of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has defeated Chuma Nzeribe of the All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA) in a rerun election for a senatorial seat. The election took place Tuesday in Anambra State.
Official results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission indicated that Mr. Uba, a former domestic aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, polled approximately 42,804 votes, beating his main opponent by some two thousand votes.
Our sources on the ground in Anambra State stated that the election, which was overseen by Mike Igini who was sent to the state as the resident electoral commissioner, was relatively hitch-free.
Several of those sources attributed Mr. Uba’s victory to the role played by Nicholas Ukachukwu, who is in court to challenge INEC’s recognition of Uba as the PDP’s senatorial candidate.
In the 2011 senatorial elections, the national secretariat of the PDP had submitted Mr. Ukachukwu’s name as its official candidate. However, Andy Uba and his younger brother, Chris, wangled a court order declaring Uba as the candidate. A source at the PDP headquarters told SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity that Mr. Obasanjo then pressured President Goodluck Jonathan to back Andy Uba as the party’s senatorial flag bearer, even though the hierarchy of the party regarded the faction that produced him as a rogue faction.
During the campaigns for the rerun election, Mr. Ukachukwu, a businessman, rallied voters to vote for the PDP. He assured his supporters that, once the PDP wins, he would be able to persuade the courts to declare him the rightful candidate.

“It was as if the PDP had two candidates in the election,” said one of our sources, “Ukachukwu and Uba.” He added: “Most of the people voted for the PDP because they believe Andy will be removed and Chief Ukachukwu will soon be sworn in as the rightful candidate.”
Our sources said Ukachukwu’s assurances that he would eventually unseat Mr. Uba became effective because the mood among Anambra voters was equally against Uba and Nzeribe.
“The truth is that most people in Anambra don’t want either Chief Uba or Chuma as their senator,” said one of the sources. “That’s why they listened to Ukachukwu’s statement that the court will restore his ticket that was snatched by Andy.”
A longtime member of APGA said Governor Peter Obi should take responsibility for the party’s poor performance. “It is the governor that imposed Chuma [Nzeribe] as APGA’s senatorial candidate,” the source said.
An indigene of Ihiala, the hometown of Mr. Nzeribe, told us that Nzeribe has a bad reputation in their hometown. “Even within his extended family, I am sure that he will lose election,” said the man.

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