Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has emerged the winner of Anambra governorship election.
Soludo, candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, was declared winner of the polls by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
His victory was announced in the early hours of Wednesday by the Returning Officer of the election, Prof Florence Obi.
“That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Prof Obi said at the INEC office in Awka, the capital of Anambra State.
The election, which started on Saturday amidst security challenges, dragged on because the polls did not take place in Ihiala on that that day and had to be rescheduled to Tuesday.
Soludo won with 112,229 votes. His nearest rival, Valentine Ozigbo of the People’s Democratic Party, received 53,807 votes, while Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress, had 43,285 votes. Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party, had 21,261 votes.
Anambra Poll: Ozigbo congratulates Soludo
Valentine Ozigbo, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party who came second in the just-concluded governorship election in Anambra State, has congratulated the winner, Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo.
Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, won the election with 112,229 votes, while Ozigbo, garnered 53,807 votes. Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress received 43,285, while Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressive Party had 21,261 votes.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ozigbo announced that he “just called Professor Chukwuma Soludo and congratulated him on being declared the winner of the Anambra State governorship elections, 2021. I wished him well and prayed for his success.”
The statement was titled ‘PDP’s Valentine Ozigbo congratulates Soludo, delivers a Thank You Message to Ndi Anambra’.
” It was an honour to run this race with you,” he said.
“Two years ago, I decided to go into active partisan politics with a number of objectives in mind.
“First, 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.
“Pulled by the vision of a better and brighter Anambra, we 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” he said.
He pointed out that the security agencies failed to provide a peaceful environment for campaigns to hold in the state.
“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,” he said.
Ozigbo decried the use of government funds and resources to corrupt, coerce, and intimidate voters 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” he said.
“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 said
He appreciated his supporters for the determination but noted that the election was fraught with many shortcomings, noting that the Independent National Electoral Commission presented poorly trained staff.
“This election was fraught with a lot of shortcomings 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. We need to do a lot more to ensure that competence is never sacrificed on this altar and that democracy is practised in line with its truest tenets.
“In all, I am more determined to work 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. Ka Anambra Chawapu,” he said.
