The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo as the winner of the governorship election in Anambra State.
The result was announced at about 1:50 am on Wednesday by the returning officer for the election and Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi.
Soludo pulled a total of 112,229 votes including most of the votes in Ihiala supplementary election held on Tuesday.
Voting had been extended to Tuesday to allow people of Ihiala Local Government Area to vote as they were previously unable to do so due to due to technical difficulties.
In Ihiala, APGA won with 8,283 votes, PDP came second with 2,485 votes, while APC got 343 votes.
Soludo won in 19 local government areas of the state and scored 25% in all the 21 local government areas of the state.
According to Prof Obi, the results were as follows: APC, 43,285, APGA, 112, 229, PDP, 53,807.
The total number of valid votes in the election was; 241,523, total number of rejected votes was 8,108, while the total vote cast in the election was given as 249,631.
“This is the moment we have been waiting for. I want to use this opportunity to thank the chairman of INEC and his team for this opportunity given to me and my university to partake in this Anambra 2021. I thank the service chiefs, the people of Anambra State, we remain very grateful.” Obi said.
“Allow me to read this form EC8E, which I have completed. I Prof Florence Banku Obi hereby certify that I’m the returning officer of the Anambra governorship election held on 6 and 9 of November.
“That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having certified the requirement of the law is hereby declared the winner of the election,” Prof. Obi said.
Former chairman of APGA, Senator Victor Umeh while reacting to the victory said the election was transparent, and is the best election so far held in the state.
“We have again won the state, despite the fact that some people boasted that they will win the state. This is to tell them that APGA is on ground, and it is not just about boasting of winning, but doing your homework well. I urge them to concede victory to our party and the candidate, because the people made a clear choice.”
The collation officer for Ihiala, Dr. Jarma Anagbogu of the University of Calabar, UNICAL, who announced the result from Ihiala, said there was no election in Orsumoghu and Lilu communities because of security challenges.
Anagbogu said: “In the process of the election, we received report that there was resistance in Orsumoghu and Lilu.
“INEC had deployed staff to the communities, but they could not enter.”
