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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Charles Soludo, of orchestrating violence in last Saturday’s by-election in the state.
The state had held by-elections to elect a representative in the Senate for Anambra South Senatorial Zone, and House of Assembly member of Onitsha North 1 State Constituency.
The Chairman of the APC in Anambra State and their governorship candidate, Mr. Basil Ejidike and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, raised the alarm, accusing Soludo of orchestrating violence and holding key party officials hostage, just to rig the election in their favour.
Ejidike said: “The situation in our dear state, if not checked, is capable of derailing the forthcoming governorship election. We are all witnesses to the events that took place yesterday where non-state agents took over the running of security in an election.”
“The state vigilance group took over the home of our senatorial candidate and his house was surrounded just to ensure that he did not exercise his franchise.”
“You are also aware how the sitting deputy governor left his zone, the central senatorial zone on election day to come to Anambra south, all in an effort to distract him.
“While he was distracting our governorship candidate, vigilance group was holding the party’s senatorial candidate hostage in his home. You are also aware of the killing of the of APC ward chairman in Nri, and you know that Nri is the home of the deputy governorship candidate. This is to show you that all these were carefully planned,” he said.
In his own briefing, the governorship candidate of APC lamented that the forthcoming governorship election May breed chaos if Soludo’s strategy is not checked. He also called on the police and DSS to take steps to disarm local security operatives working for Anambra State government and also keep them away from election duties.
Ukachukwu said: “One thing is obvious, the violence was much, and if this is not checked, it will affect the forthcoming governorship election. They (vigilance operatives) visit your party’s strong hold, shoot and collect electoral material, and disappeared.
“I called the Commissioner of Police to come and see what they were doing, the Commissioner insisted the election duty was headed by an AIG. I called him too and he told me he was at a scene where the Udogachi vigilance people were and that he had dislodged them. But I insisted that just sending them away was not enough because they will simply go to another location and do same. Why not disarm and arrest them.
“Of all the things that were done on Saturday, not even one arrest was made. Instead, all the people that were arrested were APC party agents who were doing their work. We are surprised that police could not make even one arrest. It was an orchestrated plan. They came to my community and were doing the same thing.
“The deputy governor came to my community and arrested our party agent, even when he is not from that area, he was moving from place to place on election day. If I wasn’t there to calm my people, maybe the worse would have happened.
“We are saying that we are not going to fold our hands and watch them. Police, DSS must disarm Udo Ga Chi people else we will not watch them do this. The right thing must be done to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order.
“I am even happy that with all that they did, they even awarded us about 19,000 votes. That is the kind of votes that can be gotten in one community.
“We are still optimistic we will win the governorship election. Udo Ga Chi (vigilance) must be taken out of election and the right thing must be done and we will win the election,” Ukachukwu said.
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