Public affairs analyst Jide Ojo has dismissed allegations of vote buying in the recently concluded Anambra Gubernatorial elections, describing them as “A convenient excuse for people to mourn their losses.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast show The Morning Brief, Ojo said that some candidates, particularly from smaller parties like the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), are using the issue of vote buying to justify their poor performance.
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“This issue of vote buying, I think, is just a convenient excuse for people to mourn their losses,” he said. “Imagine someone like the Labour Party candidate or the ADC candidate saying they could not have won because of vote buying, it is not true.”
Ojo argued that winning elections goes far beyond monetary inducement, stressing that factors such as party structure, visibility, and proper campaign strategy are far more decisive.
“The issue of winning and losing elections goes beyond the monetary purchase of votes. It has to do with a lot of other things. Did they have a structure? Did they campaign?” he questioned.
He noted that the only strong campaigns in the election were those of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Governor Charles Soludo, who was “light years ahead” of his competitors.
“In this election, we saw that the only robust campaigns that took place were between the APC candidate and the APGA candidate. In fact, Soludo was light years ahead of his competitors; he was on air, on national networks, paid for live transmissions, and people knew he was campaigning,” Ojo stated.
He criticised some of the other 15 candidates for what he described as “political evangelism,” saying, “You’re not going to win elections by just visiting shops and small gatherings.”
Ojo also pointed out internal crises within major opposition parties as a key reason for their electoral setbacks.
“Look at the Labour Party, PDP, and ADC all in crisis. Even the leader of the Labour Party couldn’t deliver his polling unit,” he added.
He concluded that the narrative of vote trading is misplaced, insisting that election outcomes are shaped more by preparedness and strategy than by alleged vote buying.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday declared Governor Soludo as the winner of the November 8 Anambra governorship election.
According to the results announced by the State Returning Officer, Omoregie Edoba, Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) polled 422,664 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 99,445 votes.
Paul Chukwuma of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) came third with 37,753 votes, while John Nwosu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) got 8,208 votes. Labour Party’s George Moghalu scored 10,576 votes, and Jude Ezenwafor of the PDP had 1,401 votes.
The PDP polled 1,401 votes in Saturday’s election, placing one of Nigeria’s biggest parties in sixth position, a distance way below the winning party – the APGA’s 422,644 votes.
INEC stated that 598,229 voters were accredited out of 2,788,864 registered voters, with 584,054 valid votes and 11,244 rejected ballots.
Source: Channels TV
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