An interest group, the Anambra Patriots for Soludo (APS), has begun efforts to mobilize massive votes for the incumbent state Governor, Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo’s second-term bid.
The APS convener, Arc Okey Ezeobi, disclosed this to newsmen shortly after the group’s leadership organized a meeting in Awka to reconcile all the aggrieved members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, who had left the party since 2022.
Arc Ezeobi, who consistently emphasized that the APS gossips and showcases the good works Governor Soludo is doing for Anambra people, maintained that the group is not talking about winning an election this time.
Noting that they are looking towards having 100% votes for Soludo, Ezeobi noted that they are targeting to clear the 326 wards and all the polling units in the state.
According to him, the strategy to realize this is good governance, which he believed Governor Soludo has been giving to the Anambra people.
‘We have delivered it; we have a record nobody can beat even tomorrow, except another governor from APGA.
‘There is something strategic Soludo is doing that people are not seeing.
‘He is building institutions, setting out policies, things that will live beyond him so that even when he leaves, the person he will hand over will have no option but to continue from the same track.
‘At the end of the day, Nigerians will see the solution in Anambra.
‘What do I mean by this? I mean that Nigerians everywhere, every state, will be coming to Anambra State, to copy the Anambra model,’ Ezeobi noted.
At the Thursday, 27th March meeting, Ezeobi said they observed many aggrieved APGA members who said they are not interested in the system anymore, feeling that they had done so much but nothing had come of it.
He said in the spirit of Onye Aghana Nwanne Ya (Be your brother’s keeper), which is the APGA Mantra, they need to reach out to everybody to reconcile the differences to see a bigger picture ahead of the party instead of looking at it on a personal level.
‘APS has gone on that mission to search every nook and cranny of Anambra State for all our old APGA faithfuls who are hibernating because of what had happened in the past.
‘This is one phase; it is something we are going to be doing consistently through the election period to make sure that we capture them and have a database of all of them in the 326 wards in Anambra State so that we can adequately address their situation,’ Ezeobi said.
He believed that with Governor Soludo’s achievements, the aggrieved members would have no point staying in other political parties.
While addressing the aggrieved members, Ezeobi, who is also the Managing Director of the Anambra State Bureau for Public Procurement, recalled how the APS began and explained that it had created a publication that contains Governor Soludo’s achievements so far.
According to him, the APS will storm the entire markets in Anambra State next week for an aggressive grassroots mobilization movement to tell people the gospel of Governor Soludo and his achievements.
He stressed that Anambra is APGA land, and Soludo has no rival as the November 8 gubernatorial election in the state is concerned.
‘We want Anambra to be APGAnized and Soludonized; that is the bottom line.
Let us reconcile to bring back the glory of APGA.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the APS, Chief Ejiamatu Damian Enekwechi, appealed to the aggrieved members to bury the hatchets, return to APGA, and join hands in supporting Governor Soludo, for the overall interest of ndi-Anambra.
Responding, some of the aggrieved members, Lady Njide Anusi, Dame Theresa Udemezue Okoye, Hon Friday Udensi, and Mr. Kenneth Emenike, among others, could not hide their grievances, but expressed readiness to rejoin the party.
