Charles Soludo

  • Anambra 2021 Governorship Election Fact-Check

    Claim: A post on Nairaland claims a police DIG and AIG  assigned for the Anambra elections have both resigned from the assignment. The post details that: “A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Joseph Egbunike and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) deployed to Anambra State for Saturday’s governorship election have resigned from the assignment.” 

    Verification: Phone calls placed to the police PRO, Frank Mba, were not responded to. However, according to latest reports from Vanguard and independent the police PRO has confirmed that there was no resignation, DIG Joseph Egbunike was only replaced with AIG Zaki Ahmed to lead the security for the Anambra gubernatorial elections. 


    Claim: A video shared by a Twitter user, @Real_Amakalke, and many others depicts a rigging galore, allegedly  perpetrated by election officials in Anambra. 

    Verification: Although the location of the footage could not be determined, analysis of the video on InVid video verifier showed it first appeared an hour ago on this YouTube page, “BiafraUplift” and generally not too long ago online. The footage was neither doctored nor altered in any way. As such, the event in the video is recent. 


    Claim: A Facebook page, Gtv-Freedom News Page, posted two images at 10:45a.m., claiming that unknown gunmen are attacking and killing soldiers and police officers in Anambra. 

    Verification: While the first image is from a September 28th report by BBC Igbo, the other image has been used several times in the past to accompany reports relating to hoodlums, unknown gunmen, Bandits e.t.c. No Premium Times/PTCIJ observer or any credible media platform reported such a case. Also, the Anambra Commissioner of Police, Echeng Echeng, dismissed the claim as fake news when contacted.


    Claim: A user on Twitter, BiafraBreakingNews, claims polling units in Onitsha remain empty with Zero voter turnout. 

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is MISLEADING-1.png

    Verification: Abdulazeez Abbas, a Premium times reporter in Onitsha clarifies that the low voter turnout is only at the newly established polling units in the area. He explains that the prevalent issue is the general malfunction with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVS) not the low voter turnout. 


    Claim: Valentine Ozigbo, Anambra PDP gubernatorial candidate, said INEC is no longer using incident form. 

    Verification: According to reports by Premium times and Tribune, INEC has abolished the use of incident forms since 2019. The incident form is a report to the elections board about any irregularity or unusual happening such as failure of  poll workers to appear on time, voter’s name not on the roster, or general issues with election tools.


    Claim: Reports on ChampionsNews and DailyPost claim the governorship candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Chidozie Nwankwo  has stepped down for PDP’s Valentine Ozigbo. 

    Verification: Dr. Leonard Nzenwa, the National Chairman of the African Action Congress (AAC) dispelled the claim. He described the news as “fake” and a means to demoralise the party’s stands in the elections. The chairman said Mr. Chidozie is fully in the race and has not dropped for Valentine Ozigbo.


    Claim: A user on Twitter, @Afrimediaa, claims that ‘unidentified armed men’ have invaded   Aguata LGA, Immaculate Heart Ekwulobia; attacked party agents, electoral officers and made away with election materials and that voting has been cancelled.

    Verification: An observer with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism, Adesola Ikulaloju, who is currently at Aguata, confirmed that the news is not true. He added that voters are still on queue and voting is still ongoing with no threats at the moment.


    Claim: A Twitter user @hardynwa claims INEC has extended voting by an hour and that voting will continue on Sunday. 

    Verification: Anambra INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Nkwachukwu Orji, in a statement earlier extended voting time to 4:00pm due to accreditation issues.

    Also, a recent report  by Premium Times noted that the REC in a press briefing  extended voting to Sunday.


    Claim: A viral image claims the APC chairman Anambra state, Chief Basil Ejidike, collapsed after losing his local government to PDP and APGA in ongoing gubernatorial elections in Anambra. 

    Verification: A Yandex reverse image search of the acclaimed picture of the fainted APC chairman, showed the image first appeared online in 2017 and since then, it has been satirised with diverse narratives attached to it and has appeared also on different platforms such as tori.ng and wowplus.net amongst many others since 2017. 


    Claim: A user on Facebook, Ada Biafra shared a statement titled “US Statement on the Upcoming Anambra Elections” which detailed potential sanctions Nigeria would face if the Anambra Elections does not go well. 

    Verification: The “statement” did not appear or feature on any credible news sites. Also, the statement did not carry any signatory (like most statements do) or direct reference to it. In fact, the link attached to it was that of a YouTube video broadcasting recent happenings in Anambra.


    Claim:  A post by Anambra Breaking News NG on Facebook claims APC is heading to victory and leads in 7 local government areas in Anambra state.

    Verification: Latest reports on election results by Premium times and ThisDay  shows it is APGA’s Charles Soludu who is leading with 6 Local Government Areas so far and not APC’s Andy Uba. No reports anywhere, aside from the claim in question, that suggest APC is leading in Anambra with 7 LGAs. 

  • Anambra 2021 Governorship Election: Meet some of the candidates

    On Saturday November 6, 2021, electorates in Anambra will head to the polls to choose the next governor of the state. 

    18 political parties  listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be contesting this position.

    In preparation for the election, INEC has said 86 out of the 5,720 Polling Units (PU) in the state have no voters, hence no personnel or material will be distributed to those PUs.

    Although INEC says it is ready, a coalition of civil society organisations in the South-East has asked that the election be postponed to douse the tension and fear in the minds of the populace.

    This tension was heightened by the sit-at-home protest from November 5 to November 10, 2021, declared by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This protest has however been cancelled.

    Also, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, has warned non-state actors, including the IPOB to steer clear of Saturday’s election in Anambra State.

    In view of the election, Dubawa, here, introduces some of the candidates.

    APC candidate- Andy Uba

    Emmanuel Nnamdi Uba also known as Andy Uba, is a politician who once served as the  Special Assistant on Special Duties and Domestic Affairs to President Olusegun Obasanjo. 

    He is also not new to the governorship race, having contested the 2007 election in which he was declared winner but the election was challenged in court by Peter Obi. 

    His administration was eventually truncated.

    Andy Uba has also served two terms in the Senate (2011 and 2015) representing Anambra South Senatorial district.

    He emerged the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Anambra governorship primary after defeating 13 other aspirants.

    The 62-year-old will be contesting this election alongside his running mate, Chkwuememeka Stephen Okafor, who is 57-year-old.

    Anidst all these,, the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed December 20 to deliver judgement in a suit by George Moghalu, an aspirant in the APC primary election.

    PDP candidate – Valentine Ozigbo

    Valentine Ozigbo is a politician and businessman with over 17 years of experience in the banking sector. He has worked with NAL Merchant Bank, Diamond Bank, Continental Trust Bank, FSB International Bank, Standard Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Bank PHB.

    He has served as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria-based hospitality company, Transcorp Hotels Plc. 

    He is also the immediate past President and Chief Executive Officer of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria plc (Transcorp) from 2019-2020.

    In June, the 50-year-old polled 62 out of 218 votes to beat 13 other aspirants. He will be contesting the election with 64 year old Lilian Azuka Enemo as candidate for deputy governorship.

    Following a court order, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognised Valentine Ozigbo as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the November 6 Anambra governorship election.

    APGA candidate- Charles Soludo

    Chukwuma Charles Soludo, is a professor and politician who has been active in the academia, politics and the business world. 

    He has worked with the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, European Union (EU), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); United Nations (UN), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), African Development Bank (ADB), African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) among many others.

    In the Academia, Soludo had served at the IMF and also taught the IMF’s Financial Programming and Policy course to senior staff of Central Banks in West Africa and other developing regions. He has similarly served as Member, Technical Committees that drafted economic and trade policies for the Federal Government of Nigeria; and Executive Director of the African Institute for Applied Economics (AlAE).

    In 2003 he served the Federal Government of Nigeria as the Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo and the Chief Executive of the National Planning Commission (NPC) among many other responsibilities.

    In addition, he served as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and won the Global and African Central Bank Governor of the Year, in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

    60-year-old Soludo alongside his running mate, Ibezim Onyekachi Gilbert (age 45), emerged as APGA’s  candidate in June with  740 votes. 

    However, they were in July removed from INEC’s  list of cleared candidates in recognition of an order by the High Court of Jigawa State, questioning the legality of the emergence of the duo and of the party’s leadership that produced them.

    Subsequently, they were  affirmed by the supreme court in October 2021 and restored by INEC.

  • CORRECTION: Abati right on Anambra unemployment rate

    ARISE NEWS anchor, Dr. Rueben Abati, was right about Anambra State’s unemployment percentage quoted during a live debate held for some governorship candidates on Monday.

    During the debate, Mr Abati said the unemployment rate in the state was at 44 per cent but one of the candidates, Prof. Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), contradicted this saying it was at 13 per cent.

    “…and you have the unemployment rate of 44%, and if you add underemployment to that, you have 60.7%,” Mr Abati said.

    Although Mr Abati insisted he was quoting a data source which he did not mention, Mr Soludo countered his claim with that of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). 

    Dubawa fact-checked and concluded that Mr Soludo was right. However, a further check has revealed that the conclusion is faulty.

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data for the second quarter of 2020 (Q2), which was used for the verification, is not the most recent data on unemployment in Anambra. 

    While the data for Q2 of 2020 shows Anambra State’s unemployment is at 13.1 per cent, data for Q4 shows that unemployment rate for Anambra is at 44.22 per cent.

    This new revelation indicates that Mr Soludo was wrong, having quoted outdated data while Mr Abati was right.

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