SOLUDO, PETER OBI FACING OFF IN ASSEMBLY ELECTION
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and a candidate for the Labour Party's presidential nomination, and Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the current governor, are facing off in the state's House of Assembly election on March 18.
Although though Prof. Soludo predicted that only the candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, respectively, would be in the race for the presidency, he must have been stunned by the election's results.
Obi might win Anambra State as a "homeboy," but Soludo had prophesied that he would not take home three states. Obi won the same 12 states as all of the other two leading candidates, according to the announced results, which are still being disputed as being substantially skewed. Obi also won 97 percent of the votes cast in Anambra State, raising questions about what will happen on March 18 on Saturday.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, of which Soludo is the national leader, is in a panic as a result of this.
Soludo was seen addressing his supporters in Igboukwu, Aguata Local Government Area, in a video that went viral last week.
He informed them that neither highways nor hospitals are built by legislators.
"That is my work. The most important positions in the state are Governor and Deputy governor, and once these two get in, the door will shut. That is why you need to elect someone from our party, so that he can always remind me of the infrastructure in your area.
"If you vote for anyone else, the person will stay on the corridor while we make plans for the state, and we will only pay them their salaries, they will not get other pecks of office," Soludo had threatened.
The governor was quoted as saying in another forum that having representatives from other political parties in the House of Assembly would impede state growth and jeopardize his job.
The Labour Party, meanwhile, is continuing its campaign to win all 30 seats in the Anambra State House of Assembly. In a radio interview last week, Senator Victor Umeh, a senator-elect running on the Labour Party platform, attacked the governor, saying that if he acts honorably, he has no reason to worry about being impeached.
Umeh urged the populace to disregard the governor and support only Labour Party candidates in the election, accusing him of seeking a rubber stamp Assembly that he can control.
On the other hand, Mr. Peter Obi, who has to replicate his success at the presidential election in the fight for the House of Assembly, isn't giving up on his goal of demonstrating his supremacy in the state. Obi met behind closed doors with each Anambra Labour Party House of Assembly candidate last weekend. Obi urged them to win during the meeting and urged Anambra voters to support just LP candidates.
During a press conference he said that Soludo didn't have to be intimidated by dealing with LP lawmakers. He claimed there was no scheme to impeach him using LP lawmakers and that all he had to do was always act morally.
After winning, Obi urged the candidates to cooperate with Soludo, pointing out that the development of the Anambra people was of utmost importance.
"If we have good schools, good hospitals, that is my concern, and we know that LP candidates are the most competent. So I charge the people to vote for LP candidates only," he said.
In response, the governor's press secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, said: "That call was meant to deceive Anambra people. Obi cannot be talking about development in Anambra and also be talking about asking Anambra people to elect lawmakers from the opposition party to work with Soludo.
"He worked with a legislature that was dominated by lawmakers from the PDP, when he first came in as governor, and he knows that it was not easy for him. He even suffered impeachment because of that, and we hope it is not the same thing he wants to set Soludo up for."
He urged the people of Anambra to reject Obi's appeals and cast their votes en masse for APGA so that Soludo's development efforts in the state may continue.
According to MON DIARIES, there is anxiety in the state, particularly within the government circle, which fears that a majority seat for the Labour Party in the state could mean the end of the current administration
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