Anambra poll: APGA tackles APC candidate over Tinubu’s mandate claim

The All Progressives Grand Alliance has faulted claims by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2025 Anambra governorship election, Nicholas Ukachukwu, that President Bola Tinubu has mandated him to deliver Anambra to the APC.

Ukachukwu, who was hosted to a welcome reception at the Chinua Achebe Airport, Umueri, Anambra State, on Saturday, after his recent visit to President Tinubu, had reportedly made the claims when he told the APC supporters that the President had mandated him to connect Anambra to the centre.

He also used the reception to unveil his running mate, Senator Uche Ekwunife, to his supporters.

He said, “We met with the president in Abuja, and he said to us ‘go and get me Anambra State and connect Anambra to the centre’. That is a mandate, and I want to give you the same mandate to go and gather your people so we can connect Anambra to the centre.

I and my running mate, Uche Ekwunife, are capable of the task, but we need your support to do it. Take this message to the grassroot. No one should deceive you any longer.”

However, reacting to the development in a press statement released on Sunday, the National Coordinator, APGA Media Warriors Forum, Chinedu Obigwe, said Tinubu never gave such mandate, insisting that Ukachukwu is not the spokesman of the President and not in a position to relay the President’s message to Nigerians.

Obigwe said, “delivering Anambra” to the APC is an impossible mission that cannot be accomplished by Ukachukwu because the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo will defeat him by a wide margin during the election on November 8, 2025.

The statement read in part, “Ukachukwu is still floating on the murky waters of Anambra politics and that he will continue floating until after the declaration of Soludo as the winner of the November 8, 2025 governorship election.

“To start with, Nicholas Ukachukwu is not the spokesman of President Tinubu, and in that regard, he is not in a position to relay President Tinubu’s message to Nigerians. The person that has the right to do that is Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on media to the President and others that are media aides to the President.

Ukachukwu should have been plain in telling Anambra people that he is eyeing the job of Bayo Onanuga and Daniel Bwala. Another thing is that what Ukachukwu is claiming that the President told him to do is a herculean task.

“He was unable to deliver himself in Anambra South Senatorial election when he contested against the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in 2023 and that is to say that mandating him to deliver Anambra to APC is sending him on an impossible mission.

“So, even if the President told him to deliver Anambra to APC, he is sending him for an impossible mission.

“Soludo will defeat Ukachukwu with a wide margin on November 8, and Anambra electorates will resist Ukachukwu’s rigging plot with the last drop of their blood.”

According to him, Anambra electorates will vote for Soludo and defend their vote for the governor to continue transforming the state to the envy of other States in Nigeria.

With Soludo, Anambra is already aligned to the centre, and that is to say Ukachukwu talking about aligning Anambra to the centre is tantamount to him beating around the bush.

“When President Tinubu visited Anambra, he approved all the requests made by Soludo for the betterment of Anambra State, and that is evidence to show that Soludo is enjoying a good working relationship with the President administration.

“The President in his message to Anambra people attested to the undeniable fact that Anambra is rising under the able leadership of Governor Soludo that is his friend. As long as the forthcoming November 8 governorship election is concerned, there is no vacancy in Anambra State. It is Governor Soludo for Governor till March 17, 2030, or nothing,” the statement added.