Governor Charles Soludo on Sunday declared that Peter Obi and other opposition politicians sought to use Saturday’s by-elections as a popularity test, but the outcome did not favour them.

In a rally to celebrate the victory of his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, on Sunday, Mr Soludo said, “ADC does not exist in Anambra. We showed it yesterday (Saturday). Labour Party is dead.”

Mocking Mr Obi, a former APGA Anambra governor, who endorsed ADC candidates ahead of the election, Mr Soludo said APGA won even in Onitsha North, “the constituency of the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party”.

“That’s his state constituency; he lives in Onitsha,” the Anambra governor noted.

He added, “All of them came. The senator representing the zone came. The senator representing Anambra Central threw himself into the ring. Members of the House of Representatives threw themselves into the ring. It looked like this was an allied force. Who were they coming against? The people. But the people of Anambra spoke.

“They wanted to use it as a test case for the new concoction called ADC in Anambra, but that election was won by APGA. We won with about 77 per cent, a very emphatic statement. The signal we sent was that both ADC and Labour Party are dead in Anambra.”

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Emmanuel Nwachukwu polled 90,408, defeating All Progressives Congress’s Azuka Okwuosa, who polled 19,847 votes, and ADC’s Donald Amangbo, who scored 2,889 votes.

The APGA politician would replace Ifeanyi Ubah, the Anambra South senator, who died in July 2024.