‘Bogus claim’ — Soludo denies spending N3.5bn on vote buying

Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, has denied the allegation that his administration spent N3.5 billion for vote buying during Saturday’s state assembly election.

Anambra was one of the six states where only the state assembly election was conducted on March 18.

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), which is the party of Soludo, won 17 seats out of the 30 seats in the state assembly.

The Labour Party (LP) won eight seats, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) won three seats, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won two.

In a statement on Monday, Charles Aburime, chief press secretary to Soludo, said the allegations by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, that the Anambra government spent N3.5 billion on executing the election is “baseless”.

“The satanic report alleging that Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo-led administration spent a whopping 3.5 billion naira to execute the State House of Assembly election is not only untrue but highly despicable and illogical,” the statement reads.

“The allegation is further baseless against the background that it is coming at a time of acute shortage of cash due to the federal government naira redesign policy which sadly exposes the devilish intentions of the writer(s).

“Ndi Anambra are advised to disregard the non-existent International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) who made the said allegations.

“The people behind this organisation have been known to be serial blackmailers over the years who do not serve any useful purpose to society.

“Governor Soludo does not need to buy votes to win an election. He is a democrat who enjoys the overwhelming support of the good people of Anambra State.

“The bogus claims by the author(s) are figments of their imagination and should be disregarded by Ndi Anambra and the general public.”