By Nwafor Okafor
The Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo has said members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who defected to other parties made the wrong decisions, stating that they will just labour in vain in the 2023 general elections.
Soludo stated this at the weekend while addressing party faithful at the Governor’s Lodge Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Area of the state.
Soludo who was tacitly referring to the mass defection of his party members to the Labour Party(LP) said APGA remained the most formidable party in the state.
Recall that a former National chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, recently defected to LP to prosecute what he called the Nigerian President of South-East extraction with a former governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, who is the LP presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections. Umeh is the LP Senatorial candidate for Anambra Central District in the race.
Umeh had also cited alleged conspiracy against him by the APGA hierarchy in the state, after losing in the party’s senatorial primary election, as another reason for dumping APGA.
Speaking with the APGA stakeholders at the weekend, Soludo said: “It is sad that the people that left had to leave, why would one leave a party he had laboured to build; it is not good to labour in vain.
“However, they are not contesting elections. The election in Anambra is between APGA and other political parties. APGA remains the third in Nigeria as the country inches closer to the 2023 general elections.
“Elections are not done on WhatsApp or the Internet. You have to be on ground. APGA is on ground here and everywhere, how can a party that does not have a councillor want to compete with us?
“We are strong, and we are growing stronger, stand a real chance in Abia, we will compete in all places vigorously.
“We shall campaign when it starts, and by the time we enter January next year, we will know those that are still contesting.
“Our victory will be resounding this time, but we will not take anything for granted, Anambra people will see,” he said.
He said the APGA government was determined to deliver value-based governance to the people of Anambra in the face of dwindling revenue.
Mr Soludo said about 220 km of road had been designed for construction and that all the 21 Local Government Areas in the state would witness massive road activities soon after the rains were over.
“We are determined to cut costs to the bones, we have renegotiated some contracts and saved money with which we are fixing some roads.
“We have used N20 million saved from there to fix the Chisco Part area of the Bridge Head-Upper Iweka expressway in Onitsha, but the approval that was presented to me by FERMA for that same job is about N200 million, but by this week, it will be done.”
