The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Prof. Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance the winner of the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.
Soludo polled a total of 112,229 votes to defeat his closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo, of the Peoples Democratic Party who scored 53, 807.
Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress got a total of 43,285 votes to emerge third in the race.
Prof. Florence Obi, Returning Officer for the governorship election in Anambra State announced the result in the early hours of Wednesday at the INEC headquarters, Awka.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that INEC suspended collation of results late Sunday night and declared the exercise inconclusive following non conduct of election in Ihiala Local Government Area.
The Commission, however, fixed Tuesday November 9 for supplementary election in the area.
Obi noted that after adding up the results collated from Ihiala, Soludo continued his lead in the election.
She said that Soludo won in 19 out of the 21 local government areas of the state.
Obi listed the areas where Soludo won to include Dunukofia, Awka South, Oyi, Anaocha, Ayamelum, Anambra East, Idemili South and Onitsha South.
She also stated that the APGA candidate also won in Njikoka, Orumba South, Onitsha North, Idemili North, Ekwusigo, Aguata, and Nnewi South, Orumba North and Ihiala local government areas.
The PDP candidate won in Ogbaru with 3,445 votes, APGA scored second while APC came third in the same council.
Senator Ifeanyi Uba of the Young Progressive Party won in his home local government, Nnewi North in spite of coming a distant fourth in the overall score card with 21,261 votes.
The returning officer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, said, “Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, having scored the highest number of valid votes, was declared winner of the election.”
Total number of valid votes was 241,523, while 8,108 were void.
The returning officer had earlier stated that Anambra, with a total number of 2,466,638 registered voters, only had a total of 253,388 accredited voters for the election which began on November 6 and was extended to November 9, 2021.
Soludo, a onetime Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was born on July 28, 1960 and hails from Isuofia, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State.
He obtained a first in Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and worked in many national and international organisations, including the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for West Africa and the International Monetary Fund.
Soludo was the Economic Adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Planning Commission among others.
(NAN).
