•Soludo speaking
Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo, who was re-elected for a second term in office last Saturday, today with his deputy, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim, received his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Awka.
On receiving the certificate, Soludo thanked God and said his re-election was a Devine project, reports Daily Independent.
He said his re-election was being repeated after his predecessor Chief Willie Obiano and his predecessor.
Soludo said his re- election was historic for several reasons: first it was the first election after a new INEC chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan came to the saddle; second the voter turnout was historic hitting close to 600,000 as against previous elections when it was less than 300,000.
Apart from being the third seating governor to be re-elected Soludo said his vote score of 422,664 represented 73 percent of total valid votes cast and that he won in 98 percent of all the 326 wards and in 99 percent of all polling units.
Soludo praised President Ahmed Bola Tinubu for his firm stand that “this is a multi democracy and votes must count, people’s will must prevail”.
On INEC, he said the commission has gained the confidence of Nigerians.
According to him, the electoral process has been getting better and better and every electoral cycle seemed better than the previous one.
He said:”INEC answered, stood out, prepared, executed to precision and the result showed. For the new INEC chairman his first outing was loud. We celebrate him, his RECs, workers and INEC team in Awka”.
Soludo said the technology worked so superlatively that by 8-9 pm people were already having the
results in their mobile phones.
He also thanked Anambra people for their trust and confidence.
The coordinating national electoral commissioner in charge of Anambra state, Kenneth N. Ukeagu, PhD who handed over the Certificate of Return said the exercise which was in compliance with section 72 (1) of the Electoral Act has brought the electoral process which began several months ago to a close.
He said that INEC has been making progress in its commitment, transparency as the nation tests its integrity process from deployment of BVAS to enhanced Results Viewing Portal among other things.
