Anambra By-elections, Foretaste of November 8 Guber Poll?

David-Chyddy Eleke reviews the intrigues, violence, vote buying and all associated with the last Saturday’s House of Assembly and Anambra South Senatorial by-elections and wonders if it is a foretaste of what the governorship election on November 8, 2025 will be.

Last Saturday, some Anambra state voters went to the poll in a by-election to replace some demised lawmakers in the state.

The elections that were held included the Anambra South Senatorial Zone, and Onitsha North 1 State Constituency to elect a senator for Anambra South and a member of the House of Assembly for Onitsha North 1 State Constituency respectively. In Anambra South, the former representative, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah had died in London, the United Kingdom, while the Onitsha North 1state constituency member had been kidnapped by gunmen on the eve of Christmas 2024, and was later found dead in February this year. These necessitated elections for their replacement until 2027, when their tenure would be up.

But the elections turned out to be a foretaste of what to expect in the November, 2025 governorship poll, when the state electorate would again converge to elect a new governor.

For example, before the election, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu while addressing leaders of market unions in Anambra State who paid him a courtesy call had said the senatorial election in Anambra South particularly is a test case for the governorship election which comes up in November. He said: “Which ever party that wins the senatorial election would win the governorship election. We are determined to use the senatorial election to show that we (APC) are the ones in charge of Anambra State, and you all will see it.”

During the by-election, as expected, parties brazed up, hoping to use it a way to test strength. Besides the rivalry between the APC and APGA in Anambra State, the new coalition party, African Democratic Congress (ADC) also sought to use the by-election to show strength. This was mostly in Onitsha North 1 State Constituency by-election, where the wife of the slain lawmaker was contesting to replace her husband.

Though her late husband was of Labour Party, she had contested on the platform of the ADC. This was because of the internal crisis rocking the LP, and it was reliably gathered that the leadership of LP moved her to ADC because of this.

To support this alliance, Labour Party chieftains in the state had supported her aspiration. These included the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, Senators Victor Umeh and Tony Nwoye and other top functionaries.

Meanwhile, the by-election witnessed massive violence, thuggery, vote-buying and others, which left others thinking if this is a foretaste of what to expect in November.

Last Saturday during the election, THISDAY gathered that all the participating parties especially APC, APGA and ADC were involved in vote buying. While ADC candidate in the Onitsha North 1 State Constituency reportedly paid N5,000 for votes, APGA paid as much as N10,000. In the Anambra South Senatorial Zone, both APC and APGA ran neck to neck in the quest to purchase votes as they paid as much as N20,000 per vote.

In the area of violence, the election witnessed it’s fair share as some youths said to be loyal to the APC governorship candidate, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu had attacked the Environment commissioner in Anambra State, allegedly beating him to pulp.

Similarly, some non-state actors said to be working for the APGA-led state government also arrested and beat to pulp journalists who were covering the election. They allegedly arrested the journalists who were travelling in a bus, branding them as INEC officials who were trying to escape with electoral materials. Not even when they had sufficiently identified themselves were they released, as their assailants proceeded to humiliate and beat them up.

Similarly, the clash of the Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr Onyekachi Ibezim and Nicholas Ukachukwu turned the talk of town as viral video showed both men flexing muscles, while their battle ready security men stood and watched their exchanges.

In the video, the Deputy Governor confronted Ukachukwu for moving around Orsumenyi on election day, but Ukachukwu insisted he was from the community and had the right to move around his community where he voted, while challenging the deputy governor who is from the Central Senatorial Zone for coming all the way on election day.

Meanwhile, just as APGA is accusing APC of importing thugs for the election, APC in a post election briefing has also accused APGA of orchestrating violence against them. In a joint press briefing by the governorship candidate of APC, Ukachukwu and the party’s chairman in the state, Chief Basil Ejidike, they claimed that Soludo used government forces to hold their senatorial candidate, Azuka Okwuosa hostage.

Ejidike said: “The situation in our dear state which if not checked is capable of derailing the forthcoming governorship election. We are all witnesses to the events that took place yesterday where non-state agents took over the running of security in an election. The state vigilante took over the home of our senatorial candidate and his house was surrounded just to ensure that he did not exercise his franchise. You are also aware how the sitting deputy governor left his zone, the central senatorial zone on election day to come to Anambra North, all in an effort to distract him.

“While he was distracting our governorship candidate, vigilante was holding the party candidate hostage in his home. You are also aware of the killing of APC ward chairman in Nri, and you know that Nri is the home of the deputy governorship candidate. This is to show you that all these was carefully planned,” he said.
Ukachukwu on the other hand said: “One thing is obvious, the violence was much, and if this is not checked, it will affect the forthcoming governorship election. They (vigilante operatives) visit your party’s strong hold, shoot and collect electoral material, and disappear. I called the commissioner of police to come and see what they were doing, the commissioner insisted the election duty was headed by an AIG. I called him too and he told me he was at a scene where the Udo Ga Chi vigilante people were and that he had dislodged them. But I insisted that just sending them away was not enough because they will simply go to another location and do same. Why not disarm and arrest them.

“Of all the things that were done yesterday, not even one arrest was made. Instead, all the people that were arrested were APC party agents who were doing their work. We are surprised that police could not make even one arrest. It was an orchestrated plan. They came to my community and were doing the same thing. The deputy governor came to my community and arrested our party agent, even when he is not from that area, he was moving from place to place on election day.

If I wasn’t there to calm my people, maybe the worse would have happened. We are saying that we are not going to fold our hands and watch them. Police, DSS must disarm Udo Ga Chi people else we will not watch them do this. The right thing must be done to ensure that there is no breakdown of law and order.
“I am even happy that with all that they did, they even awarded us about 19,000 votes. That is the kind of votes that can be gotten in one community. We are still optimistic we will win the governorship election. Udo Ga Chi (vigilante) must be taken out of election and the right thing must be done and we will win the election,” Ukachukwu said.

As complaints fly, the candidates of the APGA sailed home to victory, rejoicing to their fortune. After the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Chief Emmanuel Nwachukwu and Mimih Ifeoma Azikiwe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) winners of the by-elections.

Nwachukwu polled 90,408 votes to defeat Chief Azuka Okwuosa of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 19,812 votes, and Donald Amamgbo of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who secured 2,889 votes. On the other hand, Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Ibiam Ekpe of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, said Azikiwe polled 7,774 votes to defeat Mrs. Justina Azuka of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who scored 1,909 votes in Onitsha North election.

The above result threw members of APGA into jubilation, with many of them rejoicing that the victory will translate to same in the governorship election in November. These were the thought line of the Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, who during an event in Nanka, Orumba North Local Government Area on Sunday, echoed that the results of Saturday’s by-elections showed that the Labour Party (LP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) were “dead” and “non-existent” in the state. The governor said: “ADC does not exist in Anambra. We showed it yesterday (Saturday). Labour Party is dead,” as his partymen cheered.

As November 8 approaches, many are still of the view that the incidents of August 16 can shape happenings in the governorship election. A respondent told our correspondent: “What happened has showed that APGA is on ground, and that Soludo is truly strong, irrespective of some of the stories we have been hearing that President Tinubu has given the go-ahead to APC to take Anambra, despite the open endorsement he made when he visited months back”.