The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has uploaded 75.86% of the results from the Anambra State governorship election to its public Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
As of 5:10 PM on election day, results from 4,339 of the state’s 5,720 polling units were visible on the portal. This swift upload comes just hours after voting concluded across Anambra’s 21 local government areas.
While the election was largely peaceful, it was marred by widespread reports of vote-buying and a low voter turnout. Several prominent candidates raised the alarm over the practice.
Incumbent Governor Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) accused a rival party of planning to manipulate results during collation. “We hear they have even had meetings with INEC not to upload the results so that they can have the opportunity to manipulate the results,” Soludo stated after casting his vote.
Echoing this concern, Labour Party’s former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, condemned the vote-selling, stating, “By selling your vote, you’re selling away your schools, your hospitals, your jobs; you’re selling away your future.” His sentiments were supported by election observers, including Dimma Nwobi of the Situation Room, who also confirmed incidents of vote-buying.
The election featured 16 candidates vying for the governorship, including Governor Soludo, vying for a second term. INEC had listed 2,802,790 registered voters for the exercise.
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
