Ikeugonna Eleke reviews the intrigues, violence, vote buying and all associated with the recently held House of Assembly and Anambra South Senatorial by-elections and wonders if they are a foretaste of what the Governorship Election on November 8 will be.
On Saturday, August 16, some Anambra voters went to the polls in a by-election to replace some demised lawmakers in the state. The elections that were held included the Anambra South Senatorial Zone, and Onitsha North 1 State Constituency, to elect a senator for Anambra South and a member of the House of Assembly for Onitsha North 1 State Constituency. In Anambra South, the former representative, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, had died in the UK last year, while the Onitsha North 1 State Constituency member had been kidnapped by gunmen on the eve of Christmas of 2024 and was later found dead in February this year. These necessitated elections for their replacement until 2027, when their tenure would be up.
But the elections turned out to be a foretaste of what to expect in the November Governorship Elections, when the state would again converge to elect a new governor.
For example, before the elections, the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, while addressing leaders of market unions in Anambra State who paid him a courtesy call days before the by-election, had said that the senatorial election in Anambra South, particularly, was a test case for the Governorship Election which comes up in November.
He said: ‘Whichever party that wins the senatorial election would win the Governorship Election. We are determined to use the senatorial election to show that we (APC) are the ones in charge of Anambra State, and you all will see it.’
During the by-elections, as expected, parties braced up, hoping to use it as a way to test their strength. Besides the rivalry between the APC and APGA in Anambra State, the new coalition party, African Democratic Congress, ADC, also sought to use the by-election to show its strength. This was mostly in Onitsha North 1 State Constituency by-election, where the wife of the slain lawmaker was contesting to replace her husband. Though her late husband was of the Labour Party, she had contested on the platform of the ADC owing to the internal crisis rocking the LP, and it was reliably gathered that the leadership of LP moved her to ADC because of this.
To support this alliance, Labour Party chieftains in the state had supported her aspiration. These included the Presidential Candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi; Senators Victor Umeh and Tony Nwoye; and other top functionaries.
Meanwhile, the by-elections witnessed massive violence, thuggery, vote-buying and others, which left others thinking if that was a foretaste of what to expect in November.
During the election, Fides gathered that all the parties involved, especially APC, APGA and ADC, were involved in vote buying. While the ADC candidate in the Onitsha North 1 State Constituency paid N5, 000 for votes, APGA paid as much as N10, 000. In the Anambra South Senatorial Zone, both APC and APGA ran neck and neck in the quest to purchase votes as they paid as much as N20, 000 per vote.
In the area of violence, the election witnessed its fair share as some youths said to be loyal to the APC Governorship Candidate, Prince Ukachukwu, had attacked the Environment Commissioner in Anambra State, allegedly beating him up. Similarly, some non-state actors said to be working for the APGA-led state government also arrested and beat up some journalists who were covering the election. They allegedly arrested the journalists who were travelling in a bus, branding them as INEC officials who were trying to escape with electoral materials. Not even when they had sufficiently identified themselves were they released, as their assailants proceeded to humiliate and beat them up.
Similarly, the clash of the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr Onyekachi Ibezim, and Nicholas Ukachukwu, turned the talk of the town as a viral video showed both men flexing muscles, while their battle ready security men stood and watched their exchanges.
In the video, the Deputy Governor confronted Ukachukwu for moving around Orsumenyi on election day, but Ukachukwu insisted he was from the community and had the right to move around his community where he voted, while in turn challenging the Deputy Governor who is from the Central Senatorial Zone for coming all the way from his zone on election day.
Meanwhile, just as APGA is accusing APC of importing thugs for the election, APC in a post-election briefing, has also accused APGA of orchestrating violence against them. In a joint press briefing by the Governorship Candidate of APC, Ukachukwu, and Chief Basil Ejidike, State Chairman of the party, they claimed that Soludo used government forces to hold their senatorial candidate, Engr Azuka Okwuosa, hostage.
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 vigilante 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 North, all in an effort to distract him.
‘While he was distracting our Governorship Candidate, the vigilante was holding the party candidate hostage in his home. You are also aware of the killing of the 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,’ Ejidike said.
Ukachukwu, on the other hand, said: ‘One thing is obvious, the violence was much, and if this is not checked, it will affect the forthcoming Governorship Election. They (vigilante operatives) visit your party’s strong hold, shoot and collect electoral materials, and disappear. 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 Udo Ga Chi vigilante people were and that he had dislodged them. But I insisted that just sending them away was not enough because they would simply go to another location and do same. Why not disarm and arrest them?
‘Of all the things that were done yesterday, 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 was 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 was 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 (vigilante) must be taken out of election and the right thing must be done and we will win the election,’ Ukachukwu said.
As complaints fly, the candidates of the APGA sailed home to victory, rejoicing at their fortune. After the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Chief Emmanuel Nwachukwu and Barr Mimih Ifeoma Azikiwe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) winners of the by-elections.
Nwachukwu polled 90,408 votes to defeat Chief Azuka Okwuosa of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 19,812 votes, and Donald Amamgbo of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who secured 2,889 votes. On the other hand, the Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Ibiam Ekpe of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, said Azikiwe polled 7,774 votes to defeat Mrs. Justina Azuka of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who scored 1,909 votes in Onitsha North 1 election.
The above result threw members of APGA into jubilation, with many of them rejoicing that the victory would translate to same in the Governorship Election in November. These sentiments were shared by the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, who, during an event in Nanka, Orumba North Local Government Area last Sunday, echoed that the results of Saturday’s by-elections showed that the Labour Party (LP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) were dead and non-existent in the state.
The Governor said: ‘ADC does not exist in Anambra. We showed it yesterday (Saturday). Labour Party is dead,’ as his party men cheered.
As November 8 approaches, many fear that the incidents of August 16 can shape the Governorship Election. A respondent told us: ‘What happened has showed that APGA is on ground, and that Soludo is truly strong, irrespective of some of the stories we have been hearing that President Tinubu has given the go ahead to APC to take Anambra, despite the open endorsement he made when he visited months back.’
