APGA Vows to Mobilize One Million Votes for Soludo, Denies Vote Buying Claims

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has publicly stated that it is aggressively mobilizing its electoral strength in Anambra State with the ambitious goal of securing at least one million votes for its governorship candidate, Professor Chukwuma Soludo. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ejimofor Opara, issued a press statement to journalists in Anambra, primarily intended to forcefully counter recent allegations that the party’s candidate, the incumbent Governor Soludo, plans to engage in vote buying during the upcoming November 8 election.

Opara addressed what he described as a worrying trend of voter apathy in the state during previous elections, noting that the party is working hard to reverse this trend. Their strategy includes initiating a novel approach: offering prizes to local government areas that successfully mobilize the highest number of voters. Dependable NG reports that the party insists this is merely a form of healthy competition, not an inducement for votes.

“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 asserted, turning the accusation back on the opposition. He emphasized the party’s ambitious goal: “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 one million vote mark.” He clarified that the incentives are for initiating “healthy competition amongst members of our party across wards and local government,” which he argues will logically translate into increased voter participation, dismissing the idea of vote buying “by any stretch of the imagination.” Opara suggested that anyone disturbed by this strategy benefits from existing voter apathy.

The party spokesperson highlighted the severity of low turnout in Anambra, quoting figures from the last governorship election where, despite having 2.7 million registered voters, only about 200,000 ballots were cast to decide the winner. To underscore APGA’s organic popularity, he recalled an instance from the 2021 election where a woman in Ukwulu community reportedly rejected money offered by other political parties simply to cast her vote for APGA. He concluded by reiterating that the incentives for local government areas and wards are strictly to encourage maximum participation and are not meant as a payment for individual votes.