Soludo denies claims of “disrespect” at Tinubu’s inauguration and promises to cooperate with the APC

Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has pledged that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) will cooperate with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On Wednesday, Soludo outlined the APGA’s strategy of backing the national administration, even if it is an opposition party, at the opening of the regional headquarters of the organisation in Awka, Anambra State.

Adding that it is the policy he received from the previous APGA party leaders, he claimed that the policy has not been altered.

“I tell our people that elections have come and gone and APGA did not go to the tribunal even though we had a presidential candidate because APGA has always worked with the government or party at the center and it has always collaborated with the party at the center,” he said.

“When it was the PDP, APGA collaborated with the party and government at the center and we as it were did not field any candidate because APGA worked with the party at the center.

“We have not reviewed that position and if we will, that would be in future but for now, we shall work and collaborate with the party and government at the center and that was what we met and what was written, and even when our brother, Mr Peter Obi, was governor, the party collaborated with the PDP and it has not changed and that was what we met in APGA,” Soludo said.

He denied the alleged “disrespect” to him when at President Tinubu’s inauguration on Monday.

During Tinubu’s inauguration in Abuja, Soludo was allegedly prevented from entering the state box by Department of State Security (DSS) agents.

“We were at the Eagle Square, venue of the inauguration in Abuja. The sitting arrangements were at the right where the VIPs were and we went there and they told us that we have a sitting arrangement and they directed us to where we were supposed to stay, which was even VVIP,” Soludo said.

“So, we left there and went along with the CBN governor, the governors, the Dangotes, and Oni of Ife only for me to get out of the square and hear that Soludo was bounced off the VIP and asked to go and stay with the masses.”

APGA was a party for the masses, according to Soludo, therefore if he had known that such a rumour would circulate, he would have gone there with ease.