The campaign team of Hon. Sir Azuka Okwuosa, leading candidate for the Anambra South Senatorial seat, has accused Anambra State Governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo of allegedly offering N22 billion to Orifite community in Ekwusigo Local Government Area in exchange for votes ahead of the August 16 bye-election.
In a statement signed by campaign spokesperson Okelo Madukaife, the team likened the alleged offer to “robbing Okeke to pay Okafo,” arguing that such a sum could be better deployed to rid communities like Ufuma in Orumba North of kidnappers and restore the Nkwo-to-Nkwo Nnewi-Orifite road to the condition it enjoyed during the Governor Chris Ngige era.
The statement further alleged that Soludo promised N10,000 per vote to influence the electorate in Orifite, saying the money could instead be used to reclaim Ihiala and Nnewi South from non-state actors.
“But that dream is reserved for states with governors who can match vision with management of men, machines, and money to produce a happy state,” the statement read. “Alas, Anambra has the misfortune of a governor whose major achievement is breaking the legs of citizens, intimidating opponents, and insulting noble communities.”
The Okwuosa campaign also criticised Soludo for “desperately backing an unknown APGA candidate” whom it described as a product of imposition and who, if elected, would be “a vanishing sub-minority in the Senate.”
Calling on voters to reject financial inducements and instead “bargain for their freedom,” the campaign praised Okwuosa’s record as a former commissioner, former local government chairman, political protégé of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and “a rounded intellect” whose election would place Anambra South in the Senate Majority Caucus.
“Passing PhD is not passing governance,” the statement concluded.
