ANAMBRA GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: SOLUDO WINS 2021
Oru Leonard
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Prof Chukwuma Soludo as governor-elect of Anambra State.
Professor Florence Obi, Returning Officer of the election, made the declaration at exactly 1;50am on Wednesday.
She said Soludo scored the highest number of votes cast and satisfied all the requirements of being declared the winner.
“I, Prof Florence Obi, hereby certify that I am the returning officer of the Anambra state governorship election conducted on 6th and 9th of November 2021; that the election was held and Prof Charles Soludo having certified the requirement is hereby declared the winner and returned elected,” she said.
According to her, Soludo polled a total of 112,229 votes followed by Mr Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 53,807 votes and Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had 53,807 votes.
Reacting to the outcome, former National Chairman of APGA, Senator Victor Umeh, urged those who lost in the election to accept and join the party to move the state forward.
He said the Anambra people have spoken and they must be respected.Also speaking , a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Chinuzo. Obiako, said the party will sit down and decide on the next line of actionSoludo’s walk to victory was paved with stony challenges including legal battles and intra-party squabbles but the Supreme Court in Abuja affirmed him as APGA governorship candidate. This was after the sacking of a former APGA candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji, by the court.
Umeoji, who is the current member of the House of Representatives representing Aguata Federal Constituency in Anambra State, was recently sacked by a court decision after his name had been listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission as APGA’s candidate.
The court then ordered INEC to replace Umeoji with Soludo as the validly elected candidate of APGA for the governorship election.
Also in April 2021 during the build-up to the election, Soludo narrowly escaped death when gunmen unleashed terror on him and his security aides during a town hall meeting in his hometown in Isuofia in the Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra.
Three of his police orderlies were killed during the attack which he described as “senseless”. Soludo dedicated his victory to the three policemen in his acceptance speech on Wednesday.
Soludo is expected to be sworn into office next March after the expiration of the two-term tenure of the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, who is also of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
(News Break)
