The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and incumbent Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, has expressed strong confidence that his party will secure a landslide victory in the ongoing Anambra governorship election — even if rival parties attempt to induce voters with as much as ₦100,000 each.
Speaking after casting his vote on Saturday, Governor Soludo said information reaching him from the 21 local government areas of the state showed that the election had been largely peaceful and orderly, except for a few technical challenges with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some polling units.
“It’s been relatively peaceful and going on smoothly,” Soludo told reporters. “There are some glitches here and there — for example, in some polling units in Oloobanasa, we got reports that the BVAS were not working properly. But on the average, it’s going on as expected.”
However, the APGA candidate raised concerns about incidents of alleged vote-buying in parts of the state, especially in Nnewi South Local Government Area, where he claimed a rival candidate was “desperate to win.”
“We understand that there’s massive vote buying in some areas, and some are being paid ₦15,000 each by one of the candidates who is desperate to win that local government,” Soludo alleged. “But even if they share ₦100,000, it doesn’t matter. Let the people jump. Let the votes count. We’re convinced that on the basis of one man, one vote, we’ll win — and win by a landslide. No question about that.”
When asked about voter turnout compared to previous elections, Soludo said it was too early to make an assessment while voting was still ongoing.
“How can I know the turnout when voting is still ongoing?” he asked. “Until voting closes and votes are counted, you can’t say. But I can tell you this — we have opponents, but we’ve not seen the opposition. Still, we don’t take the votes of the people for granted.”
The governor emphasized that APGA was the only political party that campaigned extensively across all 21 local government areas and 326 wards in the state.
Soludo also accused some political actors of plotting to manipulate results during the collation process.
“There’s one party — one governor mentioned their candidate — whose only strategy is that they have written results which they want to swap during collation,” he claimed. “They were telling polling agents not to upload results on IReV so they can have room to manipulate. But we have confidence in the system. Our people are vigilant, organised, and united. We will follow the process from the polling units to the ward, local government, and state level.”
Reaffirming his trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Soludo urged voters to remain calm, patient, and alert as counting continues across the state.
“Once the system works as it should,” he said confidently, “we have absolutely no doubt — APGA will win all 21 local governments.”
