By Mary Onyia
Amid the euphoria on the victory of Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in last Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra State, lay pockets of protests by his opponents over allegations of vote buying.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under its brand new Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, who was undertaking his first major assignment, since being appointed to his new role by President Bola Tinubu, declared Soludo the winner.
Soludo reportedly won by a landslide, having cleared all the 21 local government areas in the state, making him the first governor in the state to achieve such feat in decades.
But, the victory is however marred by allegations of vote buying by candidates of the African Democratic Congress, John Nwosu and his Labour Party, LP, counterpart Dr.Moghalu, both of whom contested alongside Professor Soludo for the coveted position. They have both rejected the result describing it as ‘sham’.
“I hereby reject this election in its entirety. It is one election that has destroyed the record of governorship election in Anambra State”, Dr.Moghalu reportedly said, alleging that even underage children were allowed to vote.
Similarly, in a separate statement, the candidate for ADC, Mr. Nwosu described the election as a ‘national disgrace’, stressing that the level of financial inducement witnessed in this election made nonsense of the whole democratic process.
Consequently, the Human Rights Organizational group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project SERAP has called on INEC not to turn a deaf ear to the allegations; and to immediately institute an investigation with a view to bringing all defaulters to book.
SERAP stated that the recurring cases of vote buying and undue financial influence make a mockery of Nigeria’s electoral process and participatory democracy.
According to the group’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, “Impunity for past cases of electoral bribery and vote buying is a major barrier to free and fair elections in Nigeria.” Oluwadare stressed that unless perpetrators of this vote buying are effectively prosecuted and brought to book , those contemplating vote buying will feel unconstrained in future.
Despite these allegation, Soludo, who is starting the first year of his second four year term in office as Anambra governor has continued to receive congratulatory messages from some prominent indigenes of the State, among whom is former governor of the State, Dr. Chris Ngige and many others outside the State,
Soludo has pledged to do even more for the people of Anambra for their reposed confidence in him. He promised to continue to tackle head-on the challenges facing the State with a view to resolving them.