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Claim: Viral video shows Anambra Governor, Charles Soludo, promising cash rewards to local government areas that deliver the highest votes for his party.
Verdict: TRUE! Arise News and other credible outlets reported the video. Also, we found no evidence of editing or AI manipulation.
Full Text
Preparation for the Anambra elections is in full swing, with top contenders vying for the position of the state’s governor. In Nigeria, most elections are marred by ballot snatching, violence, and vote buying.
Ahead of the Anambra election, DUBAWA received a trending video allegedly from Arise News. The footage shows Charles Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, promising cash rewards to Local Government Areas (LGAs) with the highest vote for his party.
In the video, Soludo was heard discussing his election promises with his supporters. He noted, “that he awarded the Local government area with the highest amount of votes for his party with five million naira.”
The video can also be found on X and Facebook. In the forwarded video sent to DUBAWA, the user raised doubts about the authenticity of the video, specifically whether it was actually from Arise Television or had been edited, and whether the Governor had indeed made the statement.
This request, along with DUBAWA’s firm principles of accountability and truth, prompted us to fact-check it.
Verification
To verify whether the video in question was edited or real, we ran the footage through Sensity AI, a tool used to detect deepfakes in videos, images, and audio. We saw that it had no trace of AI and was 100% human.
Seeing that the video was credited to Arise News, we conducted a reverse image search on the clip to verify its authenticity and determine if the governor had actually made the statement. Our search led us to the video posted on Arise News’ YouTube on Oct. 27, 2025.
In the video titled “Soludo’s cash pledge sparks backlash,” Governor Soludo stirred controversy after announcing cash rewards for every ward won by his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
A quick keyword search also reveals that credible media organisations, such as BBC News Pidgin, Punch Newspaper, and Sahara Reports, all reported the story on Oct. 22, 2025.
According to these reports, the governor said the LGAs that emerge first in the election will receive N10 million. He was speaking at APGA’s rally in Anambra East LGA.
Conclusion
DUBAWA confirms that the video of Governor Charles Soludo promising cash rewards for votes is true. Arise News and other credible outlets published the report. We found no evidence of editing or AI manipulation, confirming the video’s accuracy.
