Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo has expressed his gratitude to the Anambra electorate for reelecting him for the second term in office describing them as true democrats.
He also commended President Bola Tinubu for allowing the Democratic process to thrive through ensuring that the will of the people prevails The governor, who spoke at his country home in Isuofia Aguata Local Government Area, said observed that his victory was an improvement on the past results in his first term election. He said: “This is moment to say congratulations to Anambra people.
Four years ago we were elected with 112,000 votes but this time you spoke loudly with 73 percent of the entire votes, this is a show of solidarity and a very emphatic statement. “Out of 326 wards, we lost only six wards, and won the entire 21 local government and that is very empathetic statement. “We are in partnership with people at all levels in the state and we are matching on to gear four. We are in gear three as it were and we are moving to gear four.
“Thanks to Anambra people for renewing our employment. We thank Mr President, he has proven to be a very good Democrat. “I thank the new INEC chairman, it was his first outing and as the saying goes you don’t get second chance to make first impression, and you have problem that with this election , every election years is getting better and better in Anambra.
“Except for few cases, I think the election was very free fair and credible. “I thank the ICT section of INEC, as at last night they had unloaded up to 99 per cent of the results and we already knew where the election was going.” Soludo extended hands of comeradeship to his fellow contestants ahead of his second term in office noting that out of all of them one person must emerge as winner.
He said: “To my brothers (fellow contestants) I say, we were 16, and obviously only one person will win. “We have had fun, we have fought but we will still meet at functions at weekends and share drinks the Anambra way, I extend a hand of leadership to you and we will work together make Anambra better.
“For me we will work for Anambra people and no minute is lost. Ours is an assignment with a deadline.” The governor also thanked the security agencies for providing security before, during and after the elections. INEC had declared that Soludo of APGA scored 422,664 votes, which is the highest number of valid votes, to emerge winner.
The result showed that Prince Nicolas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), scored 99,445 to come a distant second; candidate of Young Progressives Party (YPP), Dr. Paul Chukwuma came third with 37,753; candidate of Labour Party (LP), Dr. George Moghalu scored 10,576 votes to come forth, and candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dr. John Nwosu came fifth with 8,208 votes. The result also showed that total registered voters stood at 2,888,64; total accredited voters, 598,229; valid votes, 584,054; rejected votes, 11,244 and total votes cast stood at 595,298.
