Soludo: Umeoji, Other Defectors Free To Return To APGA, Says Chairman

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Victor Oye, says that aggrieved persons who left the party in the build-up to the November 6 Anambra State Governorship Election are free to return to the party if they choose to.

He spoke in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared APGA’s candidate, Chukwuma Soludo as winner of the prolonged election that ended with a supplementary poll in the 21st local government in the South-East state.

Some aggrieved members of the party including a former APGA candidate, Chukwuma Umeoji, had defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress after the Supreme Court in Abuja affirmed Soludo as APGA governorship candidate and sacked Umeoji.

Also, the incumbent deputy governor of Anambra State, Nkem Okeke, had defected to the ruling party from APGA.

When asked for his word to the defectors, Oye said, “When some of them defected, they didn’t believe in defection; they wanted to experiment and now that they the adventure didn’t work out, they would definitely go back to where they belong.

“We don’t have any grudge against anybody. We are focused as a political party. When people err and they repent, they will be forgiven. If they come back with sufficient cause to be reintegrated, they will be reintegrated. After all, it is politics and what is permanent in life is change.”

‘APGA can conquer South-East states’

The APGA national chairman also said with the repeat victory of APGA in Anambra State, the party can conquer the remaining four states in the South-East geopolitical zone.

At the moment, Imo and Ebonyi states are controlled by the All Progressives Congress, Abia and Enugu remain the stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party while Willie Obiano of APGA is the incumbent governor of Anambra and he is expected to hand over to Soludo in March 2022.

Speaking on the chances of APGA in the zone, Oye told our correspondent, “We are a very modest political party and very focused. We don’t get do emotionalism, we work according to the realities of the moment.

“As far as we are concerned, South-East is conquerable; we can take the whole South-East because in Anambra, we have performed as a political party, we have shown leadership.

“We are going to extend our ties to other states and places in the federation so they will key in.”