Soludo: Even if my opponent gives N100k per voter, I’ll win by a landslide

Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, says the ongoing governorship election in the state has been largely peaceful despite a few technical issues at some polling units.

The governor, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), spoke at polling unit 002, Umuezeadigo street, in his hometown, Isuofia community, Aguata LGA, after casting his vote.

Soludo said reports from across the state showed that voting was progressing smoothly, though “some polling units recorded minor glitches with the BVAS machines”.

“I got a report from Orumba south that the BVAS wasn’t working as expected. But all said and done, I think, on the average, it is going on smoothly,” he said.

Soludo commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the overall conduct of the poll and described the exercise as peaceful.

“The only concern we have received is from one or two places, particularly in the south local government, where there are reports of massive vote buying,” Soludo said.

According to him, one of the candidates from that area “seems desperate to win the local government and has been sharing N15,000 per voter”.

“I said even if they share ₦100,000, never mind. Let the people just vote and count the votes. It doesn’t matter for us,” he said.

The governor expressed confidence that his party would win convincingly once the votes were fairly counted.

“We’re fairly convinced that on the basis of the votes — one man, one vote — we are going to win and win landslide,” the governor said.

Soludo described the voting process at his unit as “quite seamless” but noted that many voters were still in the queue around 1:30 pm.

He said polling would continue until everyone in the line before the official closing time had voted.

“The rule is that once you are in the polling unit before 2:30 pm, you must vote. I expect that all these people will vote before the end of the process,” he said.

Asked if he was satisfied with voter turnout, Soludo said it was too early to assess participation.

“How can I know the number of turnouts when voting is still ongoing? You can only know when voting closes and the votes are counted,” he said,

The governor refuted claims that APGA had been complacent during the campaign period.

“We have opponents, but we have not seen the opposition. But even then, we have not taken the votes of the people for granted,” he said.

‘ONE PARTY PLAN TO SWAP RESULTS DURING COLLATION’

Soludo said APGA remains the only party that toured all 21 LGAs and 326 wards across the state.

He also alleged that a rival party planned to manipulate the results during the collation process.

“One party — I don’t want to mention the candidate — their only strategy is that they have written results which they want to swap during collation,” he said.

“They were even telling polling agents not to fill the result sheets properly or upload the results on IReV so that they can manipulate the process.”

However, Soludo said he was confident the electoral system and citizens’ vigilance would prevent such attempts.

“Our people are vigilant, organised and united. We’ll follow the process from the polling unit to the state collation centre, and once the system works, we’ll win all 21 local governments,” he added.