TheCable

The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) says the defection of Nkem Okeke, deputy governor of Anambra, will not have any significant effect on the party’s chances in the forthcoming governorship election.

Okeke officially defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday, and was presented with the flag of the party at a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

Reacting to the development in a statement issued by Tex Okechukwu, its spokesman, APGA described Okeke’s defection as “uncalled for, ill-timed, ill-advised and of no consequence”.

According to APGA, the Anambra deputy governor started “behaving abnormally” after the party’s governorship primary, which produced Chukwuma Soludo as the candidate for APGA.

“The deputy governor had thought that the governor and the party were going to hand over the governorship ticket of the party in the last primary to him on a platter,” the statement reads.

“When that didn’t happen, he started behaving abnormally, even to the point of insubordination and dereliction of duties.

“Let nobody be deceived. APC has no root anywhere in Anambra State and that is why all that they do is going about luring political deadwood with money and other lucres.”

The party urged its supporters to remain calm and asked Willie Obiano, governor of Anambra, “not to be distracted by the defection of his deputy, which it described as a ploy to create a semblance of disunity in his government”.

“No matter the designs of the opposition and other subterranean forces, APGA is poised to win the forthcoming election and continue with the massive infrastructural development going on in the state,” Okechukwu added.

The Anambra governorship election is scheduled to hold on November 6, 2021.