Breaking: Soludo declared winner of Anambra poll + Full results

The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance winner of the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra State.

The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Florence Obi, made the declaration in the early hours of Wednesday.

Soludo polled a total of 112,229 votes to defeat his closest rival, Valentine Ozigbo of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 53,807 votes to emerge second.

Senator Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress got a total of 43,285 votes to emerge third.

Obi announced the outcome of the poll at the INEC headquarters in Awka, the Anambra State capital, after the result of Tuesday’s supplementary poll in Ihiala Local Government Area had been collated and made public.

INEC suspended the collation of results of the election held on Saturday late on Sunday, declaring it inconclusive following the non-conduct of polls in Ihiala Local Government Area.

The commission fixed Tuesday for the supplementary election in Ihiala.

Announcing the final result, 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 the 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, who is also the 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.”

Obi said that total number of valid votes was 241,523, while 8,108 were void.

The Returning Officer had earlier stated that Anambra State with a total number of 2,466,638 registered voters, only had a total of 253,388 accredited voters for the election.

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 Degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and worked in many National and international organisations, including the World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for West Africa and 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.