Professor Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has won the governorship elections in Anambra, gaining 19 of the state’s 21 local government districts.
“That Charles Chukwuma Soludo of APGA, having completed the conditions of the law, is hereby pronounced the winner and is returned elected,” announced the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Chief Returning Officer for the election, Professor Florence Obi, on Wednesday morning.
The Peoples Democratic Party’s (Mr Valentine Ozigbo) and Young Progressives Party’s (Senator Ifeanyi Ubah) candidates each won a local government seat.
Soludo, 61, a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, received 112,229 votes, more than twice as many as his closest challenger, PDP’s Ozigbo, to be declared the election winner.
Ozigbo received 53,807 votes, while the other two frontrunners – Uba and Ubah – received 43,285 and 21,261 votes, respectively.
In his victory speech following the results declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he said:
‘To the estimated 17 million Ndi Anambra within and outside our homeland (state), this is your moment, seize it! This victory is your victory. My role will be that of your chief servant, and I will work every minute of the day with you to make you profoundly proud. I will need the guidance, advice and contribution of everyone to succeed.
“Our state is one of infinite possibilities and humungous opportunities. Working in collaboration with other states, the federal government, and the international community, we have all that it takes to make our state whatever we collectively will that it can be.
“As we transit to a post-oil world and into the 4th Industrial Revolution, let us work together to build upon the foundations of our founding fathers and predecessors to create that livable and prosperous homeland that is the industrial, technology and leisure hub of West Africa. This is our manifest destiny, and collectively we shall get there!
