By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been re-elected for a second term in office as Governor of Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria, capping the dominance of his All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) party in the industrial state for the past two decades.
Charles Soludo was declared winner of the November 8 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after he won by a landslide in the 21 local government areas of the state. This fresh four-year term keeps him in office till 2030.
The State Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Omoregie Edoba, declared Soludo as the winner of the exercise after the collation of results from the local government areas of the state where the election was held.
“I hereby declare that Soludo Chukwuma Charles of the APGA, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Edoba, a professor, told a gathering at the state headquarters of INEC in Awka, the state capital, where the election results were collated.
Soludo secured 422,664 votes to trounce his closest rival, Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 99,445 votes.
Paul Chukwuma of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) came third with 37,753 votes, while John Nwosu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) scored 8,208 votes.
George Moghalu of the Labour Party (LP) and Jude Ezenwafor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 10,576 votes and 1,401 votes, respectively.
Sixteen parties and their candidates contested for Anambra’s top job.
Soludo was first elected as governor on November 10, 2021, sweeping to victory in 19 of the 21 LGAs.
Victory for the 65-year-old economist signalled the end of the months-long electioneering dominated by debates over the state of affairs in Anambra.
