Anambra 2021: INEC Finally Declares Soludo of APGA winner

The Anambra State governorship election was brought conclusion this morning as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced former Central Bank governor and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, as winner of the poll that began on Saturday.

INEC had declared the election inconclusive on Sunday after no votes were cast in Ihiala Council, hence the supplementary election.

After taking a comfortable lead in Saturday’s election, winning 18 of 20 councils declared, Soludo led the poll with 103,946 votes while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Valentine Ozigbo, had 51,322 votes.

Presenting the final poll result at 1:52a.m. at the State Collation Centre, Awka, INEC Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof Florence Obi, declared Soludo winner of the election after winning Ihiala to take his tally to 19 councils out of 21, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Youths Progressives Party (YPP) both have one local government area each. APC failed to win any council in the election.

The supplementary election got underway after about two hours of delay. Some early birds who thronged the council to witness the distribution of materials were barred by security operatives.

Recall that APGA chieftain, Senator Victor Umeh, was denied access to Ihiala Council headquarters by the army securing the council.

Umeh, who is the party’s state agent for the election, arrived at the council headquarters around 10:30a.m. accompanied by other party members before he was turned away by a superior army officer despite stating his reason for being in the vicinity.

The army officer had barked at Umeh to leave the headquarters since he was a party agent and not a local government agent.

As the rerun election went underway, unknown gunmen, suspected to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), engaged security operatives in a shootout for about three hours at the border town of Orsumoghu. The town is about two kilometres from Orsu Council of Imo State.

At the Mbosi Orsumoghu/Azia junction, a group of journalists monitoring the election in Ihiala ran into the security personnel comprising soldiers, police, civil defence, among others, who asked them to turn back immediately because IPOB was operating in the area.

They added that following the superior firepower of security operatives, the gunmen ran into the bush.

The unknown gunmen were suspected to be going to the Ihiala council headquarters, where collation of the supplementary election would hold later in the day.

“For your own safety, just turn back to Ihiala and drive through Onitsha to Awka. If you pass through this place, those people may attack you,” they advised.

The development forced joint security operatives to block the Osumoghu junction bordering Imo State.