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With all the noise made and confidence exuded by the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma and his supporters about their readiness to ensure that the All Progressive Congress, APC, wins the Anambra state governorship election as a prelude to gradually taking over the entire South East, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA, Prof Charles Soludo has won the election with a very wide margin hence there has been what most people refer to as grave side silence since Governor Uzodinma who was Coordinator of the APC Campaign Council returned to the state after the election.
According to information from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Soludo garnered a total of 112, 229 votes and also won in 19 out of the 21 local government areas of the state while Val Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with a total of 58,807 votes and also won in one local government area. The APC came a distant third with 43,285 votes without winning in any L.G.A Ifeanyi Uba of YPP took the fourth position with 21,261 votes and won in one LGA.
Obviously rattled by what most people describe as the abysmal and disgraceful performance of APC in the Anambra state governorship election, Gov Uzodinma and his supporters have neither congratulated the winner, Prof Soludo nor uttered a word since then, hence there has been grave side silence in the state contrary to their confident, boisterous and boastful disposition prior to the election.
According to a source who pleaded anonymity “what is presently going on in the APC is the blame game. While the Minister of Labour and Productivity and former governor of the state Dr Chris Ngige and Chief Moghalu who contested the primaries alongside other aspirants are blaming the leadership of the party for imposing Senator Andy Uba as the party’s candidate without conducting credible primaries and also for working against the party’s interest, others are blaming the party for appointing Uzodinma as coordinator of the governorship campaign council.
Meanwhile, President Muhammed Buhari has congratulated Prof Soludo on his emergence as Governor- elect of Anambra state.
President Buhari in a release he issued and made available to the press said, “I congratulate Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) — and a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Committee (PEAC) — on his victory in the Anambra State gubernatorial election.
I commend the security agencies for their determination to ensure that the election went on as smoothly as possible, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the successful conclusion of the exercise, despite the initial challenges encountered.
I enjoin Prof Soludo to rally other stakeholders to tackle the enormous challenges confronting Anambra State and the Southeast in general.
I look forward to working with him for the peace, security and development of Anambra State and the entire country.”
