• Yiaga Africa confirms results match independent findings
• AAC candidate invites 292 voters to lunch after loss
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, to urgently refer the allegations of vote buying and undue influence during the just concluded governorship elections in Anambra state to appropriate anti-corruption agencies and the police for investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators and their sponsors.
SERAP urged him to work closely with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the police to identify, name and shame the suspected perpetrators and their sponsors and ensure their effective prosecution.
The organisation noted that the governorship election in Anambra State reportedly witnessed widespread cases of vote-buying, conspiracy and undue influence across the state.
In the letter signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the body said the recurring cases of vote buying and undue influence make a mockery of Nigeria’s electoral process and participatory democracy.
ALSO, the Booth Party’s governorship candidate in the just-concluded Anambra State governorship election, Okeke Chika Jerry, called on INEC to take decisive action against the growing menace of vote buying, including the prosecution of offenders and the disqualification of any political party whose candidates or agents are caught engaging in the act.
Speaking with journalists on the state of the election, Okeke condemned what he described as “a dangerous trend that continues to undermine Nigeria’s democracy.”
He argued that merely arresting individuals caught buying votes is insufficient without holding the sponsoring political parties accountable.
“INEC should, as a matter of urgency, stop vote buying and prosecute those involved—especially party agents. The candidates who fund such practices should also be disqualified. That is the only way vote buying will stop in Nigeria,” he said.
Okeke lamented that major political parties often deploy large sums of money to influence voters, a practice, he said, tarnishes the country’s democratic image.
HOWEVER, YIAGA Africa has affirmed that the official results of the just-concluded Anambra State governorship election, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), align with findings from its Process and Results Verification for Transparency (PRVT) exercise.
In its post-election assessment, the group said the election outcomes were independently verified by the Anambra Election Observation Hub, a coalition of civil society organisations that monitored the poll across the state.
In a statement yesterday signed by the Chair of the 2025 Anambra Election Mission, Dr Asmau Maikudi, and Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, the group stated that the consistency between its PRVT estimates and INEC’s official figures reinforces confidence in the credibility and transparency of the electoral process.
Using the PRVT methodology, the statement pointed out that over 700 citizen observers were deployed across all 21 council areas of the state, adding that observers tracked election processes and results from a statistically representative sample of 250 polling units.
MEANWHILE, actress and filmmaker Chioma Ifemeludike (IfeDike) has extended a lunch invitation to the individuals who voted for her during Saturday’s Anambra governorship election.
IfeDike, who contested under the African Action Congress (AAC), garnered 292 votes across the state’s 5,718 polling units.
The result placed her far behind the incumbent Governor Charles Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), who won a landslide victory with 422,664 votes.
Rather than dwell on the defeat, the actress took to social media to celebrate her small but dedicated group of supporters.
In the post via X, the filmmaker expressed gratitude to her supporters while extending a personal invitation to lunch, saying she looks forward to the opportunity to “meet, wine, and hug” them.
