November 14, (THEWILL) – The 2021 Anambra Governorship Election came to a climax last Wednesday when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Prof Charles Chukwuma Soludo, winner of the election, polling a total of 112,229 votes.
This was after APGA had scored the most votes in the Ihiala supplementary election that was held on Tuesday.
THEWILL recalls that the election was extended to Tuesday to allow voting to take place in Ihiala Local Government Area which was the only local government left.
According to INEC, Soludo won in 19 local government areas, scoring 25 per cent in all the 21 local government areas of the state.
His closest rival, Mr Valentone Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 53,807 votes, while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Andy Ubah came third with 43,285 votes.
Anambra has a total of 2,466,638 registered voters, while 253,388 were accredited for the election. Before the election, deadly violence threatened to overwhelm the state, but President Muhammadu Buhari vowed that the election would hold.
In his acceptance speech, Soludo described his victory as a “Divine journey whose time has come” and said, “Let me say with utmost humility and gratitude to God, I accept the results of the 2021 Anambra Governorship Election as declared by INEC. This reflects the supreme will of the Almighty God and an overwhelming sacred mandate of the people…”
Continuing, he said, “The election itself tested the integrity of our federal institutions. Many times there were tensions, especially as one party boasted that it must take or ‘conquer,’ but the judiciary stood for the integrity of the judiciary”.
The governor-elect also thanked the incumbent governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, and President Muhammadu Buhari, amongst a list of persons.
He extended the olive branch to the people of the state and his co-contestants.
He also promised to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people who freely elected him.
Soludo is expected to be sworn into office in March 2022 after the expiration of the two-term tenure of Governor Obiano, who is also of the All Progressives Grand Alliance.
Political analysts and watchers of political developments in the country have adjudged the election as free and fair.
However, the Senator Andy Uba Campaign Organisation last Thursday rejected the result of the election as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The campaign organisation described the outcome of the election as “a charade” that did not “reflect the wishes of the people of Anambra State.”
In a statement signed in Abuja on behalf of the campaign organisation, Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe, alleged that the candidate of the APC, Senator Andy Uba, was a victim of widespread electoral fraud and manipulation by INEC in cohorts with the Willie Obiano administration and the security forces deployed to oversee the election.
He said, “the elections were characterised by widespread irregularities, intimidation and voter suppression in order to clear the path for the inglorious ‘victory’ of APGA in the polls.
“For instance, in polling units where the Biometric Voters’ Accreditation System malfunctioned, INEC went ahead to conduct the elections manually. There were numerous cases where votes announced by INEC exceeded the number of accredited voters in polling units.
“Another clear manifestation of collusion between the Obiano Administration and INEC was the publishing of results on the Social Media handles of APGA even before official announcement by INEC. Yet mysteriously, the votes announced in advance by APGA always corresponded correctly with the official figures released by INEC.
The statement read in part, “It is inconceivable that our candidate, who polled over 200,000 votes in the APC primary election would be allocated a slightly above 43,000 votes by INEC.
“It is surprising that APGA that lost almost 80 per cent of its stalwarts through defection to the APC before the election came out ‘victorious’. A sitting APGA Deputy Governor, seven members of the House of Representatives, 10 members of the Anambra State House of Assembly, the APGA Board of Trustees member, many serving SA’s, SSA’s, in addition to a serving PDP Senator all defected to the APC before the election, yet APGA emerged ‘victorious’. This is quite ridiculous.”
According to the statement, the only people left in APGA at the time of the election were Governor Obiano and his household and a few staff of the Government House, as well as Prof Soludo and his household. The majority of the electorate had moved to the APC.
“There was definitely no way the carcass of the APGA could have defeated the APC without the active collusion and manipulation by INEC and the Obiano Administration.
“What happened on November 6, 2021 fell far below the acceptable standard of a free and fair election and can best be described as an electoral fraud perpetrated by the INEC, Willie Obiano Administration and the security forces.
“We have noted that starting from the appointment of INEC Adhoc staff, who mostly came from Calabar, to the distribution of electoral materials and the retention of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, who supervised the second term election of Governor Obiano, it was crystal clear that the game plan was to overturn the popular wishes of the people of Anambra State in the biggest electoral heist of all time in Nigeria’s political history,” it said.
The campaign group appealed to APC supporters in the state to remain peaceful and calm, saying, “We will not relent in pursuing our stolen electoral mandate to the limit of the law through all the constitutional means available as the facts on ground did not in any way reflect the outcome of the elections as announced by the obviously compromised INEC.”
Meanwhile many Nigerians have called on Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, who supervised the APC primaries where Senator Andy Ubah scored 230,201 out of total votes of 349,490 to come out and explain how he came about the figure. This is coming on the heels of Uba scoring a paltry 43,285 votes in the governorship election.
With the conclusion of the election, many prominent Nigerians, including the winner, Chukwuma Soludo, have given kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari for non-interference in the election.
The results of the poll, which placed APC, the ruling party at the national level in the third position, is seen by analysts as a demonstration of the President’s good intentions and a fulfillment of his resolve not to intervene in the election.
Speaking in an interview, the Chairman Governors Forum and Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, described the results of the election as a positive development for democracy
“The results showed that President Buhari did not interfere with the election process. The fact that APGA won and the APC came third showed that President Muhammadu Buhari is a good democrat, who believes that you win some and lose some.
“We know what happened under the PDP, where the party won elections through crooked means. We in the APC leadership and President Buhari should be commended,” Fayemi said.
Also speaking on the election, Obiano praised the President for ensuring that the election was free and fair. He made the commendation in a telephone conversation with the President in the late hours of Wednesday.
“You have, once again, behaved like a statesman in truth and spirit. You pledged that a tradition of free and fair elections will be a legacy of your administration. The Anambra governorship election, which took place in a free, fair and transparent manner, is the latest example of your commitment to making this pledge a reality,” the governor told President Buhari.
Governor Obiano described as statesmanlike President Buhari’s strong opposition to the move by members of his own political party to postpone the governorship election and to impose emergency rule on Anambra purportedly for security reasons, whereas elections had been held successfully in the last two years in other parts of the country with far more serious security challenges than Anambra State.
Expressing his appreciation to the President for resisting moves to interfere in the affairs of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Obiano also noted that security agents involved in the Anambra election acted professionally.
“The result is that this election has become the freest and fairest in the history of our dear state,” he declared.
Thumbs up for INEC, Security agencies
The decision of the Inspector-General of Police, Baba Usman Alkali, who announced the deployment of 34,587police officers and an additional 20,000 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to Anambra before the commencement of the governorship election, was highly commended by both local and foreign observers who monitored the election.
The heavy presence of security personnel, they claimed, gave the people, who were panicky before the election, the courage to come out of their homes and perform their civic duties.
Speaking with THEWILL, an election observer, James Olaniyi, commended the police and the NSCDC for their professionalism. “The members of the security agencies were very civil and carried out their election duties with professionalism. Kudos to them. The security presence gave the people the confidence to come out and exercise their civic rights”, he said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) was also given pass marks by some people who spoke with THEWILL.
According to them, the digital accreditation and transparent collation made a difference during the election.
The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System has struggled since INEC first introduced it in an election conducted in Delta State. The system was equally far from reassuring in the Anambra governorship election. For instance, in one or two polling units in Nnewi South Local Government Area, there was no voting because of the failure of the BVAS. INEC needs to improve on this as it moves to conduct the two off- cycle elections in June and July next year in Ekiti and Osun States, respectively.
It is highly impressive, however, that INEC’s deployment of BVAS makes traditional ballot stuffing and analogue alteration of results more difficult to get away with because the numbers have to align with the digital accreditation records, which cannot be changed easily.
“That system made it possible to easily land egregious cases of over-voting, such that took place in Ifite Agbaja II, in Abatete in Idemili North Local Government Area during the election. In addition, the electronic transmission of results from the polling units directly to the collation centre eliminated the usual transactions and violence for results alteration, thereby increasing public confidence in the outcome.
“It remains to be seen whether INEC can scale this up to nationwide elections in which serious technology disruptions are likely to be more consequential,” a political analyst said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
