The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says its focus to rebuild the party and become a credible opposition party was the reason it did not challenge the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof Charles Soludo, as the winner of the election on November 10, 2021.
Soludo polled 112,229 votes, while the candidate of the PDP, Valentine Ozigbo, came second with 53,807 votes.
Meanwhile, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Uba, who came third with 43,285 votes had filed a petition before the Anambra State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
But in spite of the PDP’s claim that the election was marred by failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, Chukwuebuka Okolie-Akirika, the State Secretary of the party said the PDP did not believe in heating the polity.
He said, “We don’t believe in heating the polity unnecessarily. What happened was unfortunate. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System failed extensively on that day.
“We decided to take it in good faith and concentrate on rebuilding and offer Ndi Anambra the opportunity to constructively engage the incoming government by offering credible and alternative opposition so that in the fullness of time, people would have the opportunity to know that the PDP would have done better than APGA.
“In essence, we don’t want to go to the tribunal. Ndi Anambra have spoken. Rightly or wrongly, so be it.
“So, what we have resolved to do is to put our house in order, get ready for the next general elections and provide an alternative government for Ndi Anambra through constructive criticism.”
Okolie-Akirika, however, advised Soludo to focus more on change than continuity.
He also urged the governor-elect to concentrate on changing the bad aspects or policies of the incumbent government.
