National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Sly Ezeokenwa, has declared that despite Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s friendship with President Bola Tinubu and the Anambra State governor’s mantra of progressives working together, he (Soludo) was not considering defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Ezeokenwa said that it does not make any sense that political parties, which hold similar ideological leanings, should be confronting each other at the polls, saying that with the landslide victory recorded by the Anambra State incumbent at last month’s gubernatorial poll, Soludo will remain in APGA to keep supporting his friend in APC.

Ezeokenwa, while speaking with journalists in an interactive session in Abuja, yesterday, disclosed that the party had sustained the tradition of stable electoral endorsement from Anambra voters, adding that Soludo’s election surpasses the vote tally of previous APGA governors in the state.

He said that, going by the 77 per cent victory in the ballot, especially winning in 319 out of the 326 wards of the state, it could be safely said that Soludo scored an A, stressing that the excellent poll numbers have cemented APGA’s control of Anambra State and the governor’s performance in office.

He commended Tinubu for supporting the idea of state police, noting that it is only when states are in charge of their policing system, be it community policing or state policing, that the governors could be rightly called the chief security officers of their states.

The APGA national chairman, while also responding to questions about the likelihood of the incumbent Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Chioma Otti, of crossing over to APGA to prosecute his second term election, said Otti was welcome to the party any day, stressing that such a move would not be a defection but homecoming.

He said that while APGA intends to throw its doors open for defectors to join, the party will ensure not only ideological harmony, but also that the party does not become a special-purpose vehicle for migrant politicians.