Labour Party candidate of the Anambra governorship election, George Moghalu, said the election did not reflect the will of the people and claimed he would have won under a free and fair process.
Moghalu made the remarks while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, explaining why he lost his polling unit to Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
According to him, his refusal to participate in vote-buying contributed to his loss. At polling unit 017 in Uruagu Ward 1, Nnewi North Local Government Area, only 86 of the 463 registered voters were accredited. Soludo led the unit with 57 votes, while Moghalu received 22.
“Yes, because I couldn’t afford how much was being paid. I refused to get involved,” Moghalu said. “They have too much money to buy votes, and what do you expect my people to do? They fell because many of them are poor.”
He accused APGA of orchestrating most of the alleged vote-buying activities, alleging that several party agents and even a commissioner were caught on camera engaging in the practice in his constituency.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Soludo the winner of the governorship election with 422,664 votes. Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was second with 99,445 votes, while Moghalu of the Labour Party came fourth with 10,576 votes.
Observers reported widespread incidents of vote-buying and technical issues with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). The election also saw low voter turnout, with 598,229 accredited out of more than 2.8 million registered voters.