The controversy over Governor Charles Soludo’s promise to reward the highest voting ward with the sum of N5 million is currently unsettling the area as the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA described the opposition as missing the real intent for the rewards.
Soludo had in a rally at Umunze in Orumba South local government area promised to cash rewards for the electoral ward that scores the highest number of votes in the November 8th gubernatorial election which his traducers see as an act of vote buying.
National Publicity Secretary of APGA Mazi Ejimofor Opara in a statement dismissed the claims of the opposition contending that the essence of this promise is to encourage healthy competition among the 362 wards in the state adding that despite the over 2.7 million registered voters only ten percent of the voters decide the fate of elections in the area.
“First is to defray this corky story as some piece of misinformation. If you take a close look at elections in Anambra over the years you would notice a high level of voter apathy. For instance, in 2021 Anambra had 2.7million registered voters.
“Yet, less than two hundred thousand of that number decided that election, that’s if you add the total votes gotten by all the Parties in that election.
“Now, this is not about vote buying in anyway, it is about initiating healthy competition amongst members of our Party across wards and local government.
“A competition that will translate into increased voter participation, not vote buying by any stretch of the imagination”‘ he explained.
Opara agued that APGA do not need to get involved in vote buying since it is apparently clear that the party has the highest number of followership in the area adding that it is only a stimulant for increase in the turn out of voters on the day of the election.
“We know and even the opposition knows that APGA is the dominant party and does not require any kind of inducement to win elections here”
Opara recalled a case of a woman that rejected money from a political party and voted for the party of her choice; an indication according to him means that Anambra electorates cannot be bought.
“The converse is the reality of the opposition in Anambra. Recall the popular Ukwulu Woman who rejected monetary inducement to vote for another party that isn’t APGA.
“That incident remains a classic example of how Ndi Anambra cannot be bought during consequential elections.
“Again, as a party we are not unmindful of a phenomenon we have described as the “complacency of the majority”; a situation where everybody believes everybody will vote and in the end only a few come out to vote out of the majority. In this election we don’t want to just win, we want to mobilize and exploit the electoral strength of our Party and hit the 1 million vote marker.
“To achieve this, appropriate incentives in the form of healthy competition has to be put in place.
“If anyone finds this disturbing then there is something about voter apathy that works in their strategic interest,” he stated.
