The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has said that it is mobilizing its electoral strength to give its candidate in the Anambra State governorship election, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, at least one million votes.
The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Dr. Ejimofor Opara, stated this in a press statement made available to journalists in Anambra to counter claims that the party’s candidate, Soludo, plans to engage in vote buying in the November 8 election.
Dr Opara said the trend of voter apathy in the state in previous elections is worrisome, and that the party is working hard to reverse the trend, including offering prizes for Local Government Areas that mobilized the most voters.
He said: “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. The converse is the reality of the opposition in Anambra”.
“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. To achieve this, appropriate incentives in the form of healthy competition has to be put in place.”
“This is not about vote buying in anyway, it is about initiating healthy competition amongst members of our party across Wards and Local Government. A competition that will translate into increased voter participation, not vote buying by any stretch of the imagination.”
“If anyone finds this disturbing then there is something about voter apathy that works in their strategic interest.”