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Political tension mounts, as INEC schedules Anambra governorship polls
With the announcement of November 8, 2025, by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), for the governorship election in Anambra State, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has returned to the drawing board to marshal out strategies to retain power, through Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the present occupant.
Whirlwindnews.com.ng, learnt that immediately after the announcement by the commission, through Mahmood Yakubu, its Chairman at the fourth regular quarterly consultative meeting with political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, political shuttles have increased from the Agu Awka, seat of power to the Amawbia residence of Soludo for this purpose.
Yakubu, who said the date was chosen in compliance with Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, which required INEC to issue the notice for elections not later than 360 days before the date of the election, told his audience: “As you are aware, the last governorship election in Anambra State was held on 6th November 2021. By the effluxion of time, the governorship election is due next year.
“Consequently, the Commission has approved that the 2025 Anambra State Governorship election will hold on Saturday 8th November 2025. In compliance with the mandatory requirement of 360 days, the formal notice for the election will be published on 13th November 2024. Party primaries will be held from 20th March 2025 to 10th April 2025.
“The candidate nomination portal will open at 9am on 18th April 2025 and close at 6pm on 12th May 2025. The final list of candidates will be published on 9th June 2025.
“Campaign in public by political parties will commence on 11th June 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday 6th November 2025.
“Voting will take place in all the 5,720 Polling Units across the State on Saturday 8th November 2025. In the coming weeks, the Commission will provide details of other electoral activities, including the registration of new voters, transfer of voters and the replacement of lost or damaged PVCs.
“The detailed Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2025 Anambra State Governorship election will be uploaded to our website and social media platforms before the end of this meeting. Hard copies will also be made available to you shortly. I urge political parties to use the INEC Timetable to come up with your own Timetable and Schedule of Activities to enable us work together and plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of your party primaries and campaign activities.”
The INEC boss, who informed that the commission had successfully accomplished 10 out of the 13 activities listed in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the Ondo governorship election, said the remaining activities included the publication of the notice of poll, the last day of campaign and election day, adding that the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) commenced Thursday in Ondo state.
A source within the APGA circle, explained that part of the strategy was how to push back the All Progressives Congress (APC), from adding the state to its coffers, given the threats that have been coming from the ruling party since its triumph at the September 21 governorship polls in Edo State, where it snatched power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Abdullahi Ganduje, National Chairman of the party, had in a triumphant mode, minutes after the announcement of Monday Okpebholo as the winner of the election, told a group of APC chieftains and jubilant members savouring the feelings of sweet victory that the next project of the party, was to capture Anambra and add it to Imo and Ebonyi, the two South East states already in its kitty.
To emphasise that party was serious about the plan to capture Anambra, which he said was to end the complaints of marginalisation of the South East, Ganduje, had also reiterated same during the reception of Okpebholo and top APC chieftains by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Ganduje had told the President: He said: “The election in Anambra is part of our programme: ‘Political de-marginalisation of South East geopolitical zone.’ Having only two states in the South East as APC is too small for us. We need more states from the South East geopolitical zone.”
Commenting on Thursday’s development, the source, said: “We’ll meet, we’ll strategise and we’ll triumph over them. APGA is the only party that can win governorship elections in Anambra. No other party can come close. We know that the APC is planning, but we’ll ensure they won’t succeed. We know they are the only threat we have. Who’s talking about Labour Party? That’s ofe nkupu – side soup, which is not the main soup. APC is a threat because of the Federal Might.
“Anambra people know the spirit behind APGA and that’s why they’ve never lost election since 2003. For the LP, they know what to do. If it is about the national offices, they are free to vote our brother as they did in 2023, but when it comes to Anambra, they know that it is APGA, which is their own. Now INEC has announced the date, I can tell you, we won’t rest. Our people say, someone surrounded by enemies is always awake to protect himself.”
Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.
Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.
A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.
His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.
Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.
“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.
“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”
For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.
The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).
A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.
Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.
This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”
Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”
He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.
“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.
Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.
“He is running in contempt of the court. Justice Lifu should be arrested because he is acting in contempt of the court which is a criminal act,” were the exact words with which the African Democratic Congress (ADC), demonstrated its angst over the court ruling on Monday, ordering its de-registration as a political party in Nigeria.
A furious Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, told his host while appearing as a guest on Monday’s edition of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television that the judge of the Abuja Federal High Court who gave the order was actually playing with fire because of the consequences.
Directly accusing him of playing the script of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to ensure that President Bola Tinubu emerged the sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election, the party spokesman, was emphatic that the plan would not work, as head or tail, ADC must be on the ballot in all the elections.
Hear him: “There is a Court of Appeal order saying don’t hear this case until October 27. So, on what basis? You can’t place something on nothing. The Court of Appeal said don’t act on this until I hear it on October 27. So, on what basis did he deliver the judgement
“So, for us in the African Democratic Congress, what we’re convinced and they know is what they have done has no leg to stand on legally. What they want to do is to create doubts in the minds of the people that this ADC has too many legal cases, can we actually run on this? And to distract us. But we’re not distracted.
“We’re very clear. It was in spite of all they have done since ADC came on board that we ran one of the best and one of the most comprehensive direct primaries in the history of democracy in Nigeria. So, we are strong enough to withstand this. And that’s why I’m saying that we are going to contest in 2027. We’re ADC. We don’t buckle before dictatorship.”
Stressing on the implication of the judgement, which also affected Accord Party (AP), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) for allegedly failing to meet constitutional and electoral performance requirements, following a suit by the National Forum of Former Legislators, he said it portended grave danger.
He added: “We are not surprised. We know that the Nigerian people believe that there is a problem with the judiciary, but what we did not expect is the level of judicial rascality that was demonstrated today.
“What we are saying is that we reject it in its totality, and we are saying that the people behind this are playing with fire. Hundreds, if not thousands, have obtained nomination forms and contested elections and emerged as candidates on the platform of the ADC.”
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