Former Lawmaker Spills Governor Soludo’s Alliance With APC

<h4>Former Lawmaker Spills Governor<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that as  accusations and counter accusations fly regarding what transpired between the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress &lpar;APC&rpar;&comma; Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu&comma; and four serving lawmakers in the Anambra state House of Assembly before the later joined APC ahead of the November 8 election in the state&comma; the member representing Nnewi North State Constituency at the state assembly&comma; Hon&period; Onyekachukwu Augustine Ike&comma; has sworn that he didn&&num;8217&semi;t collect any money from APC prior to his joining the party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Lawmaker has debunked the allegation claiming that he defected to APC because of money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In an exclusive interview with <strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Legit&period;n<&sol;a><&sol;strong>g on Monday&comma; October 6&comma; 2025&comma; at his Nnewi constituency office&comma; the lawmaker claimed that the report that each of the four lawmakers collected fifty million naira from APC before joining the party is a falsehood fabricated by people&comma; who were paid to tarnish the good reputations of the lawmakers&period; He said that as a person&comma; he joined the party on the basis of principal&comma; not because of money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong> &&num;8220&semi;I didn&&num;8217&semi;t collect any kobo to defect to the ruling All Progressive Congress &lpar;APC&rpar;&period; The allegation that I collected fifty million naira to join the party and support its gubernatorial candidate is a falsehood from the pit of hell&period; I joined the party on principle basis&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;em> he clarified&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;I was inundated with calls that I collected N50m from the APC candidate to support his governorship bid&period; Majority of those flying this rumour are from the ruling All Progressive Grand Alliance &lpar;APGA&rpar;&period; They say I was given N50m before joining APC&period; Everybody knew I was elected into the state assembly under the platform of the Young Progressive Party &lpar;YPP&rpar;&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>When I was elected into the state assembly&comma; nobody knew I was of the YPP&comma; because&comma; I was strongly supporting Governor Soludo&comma; who is of APGA&period; Soludo approached me and requested for my support&comma; and he was ready to offer something in return&comma; but I did not make any personal request&period; I told the governor to build roads in Nnewi&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I told him I needed a capital project from the state government&period; &&num;8220&semi;When I was supporting the governor and his policies and programmes&comma; people claimed that Soludo gave me N50m to buy my support&period; I challenged those peddling the falsehood to provide evidence&comma; but none of them was able to provide any proof&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Today&comma; I decided to officially join APC to support its governorship candidate&comma; and again&comma; they say I collected N50m to join the party&period; They said that Soludo refused to give me N50m&comma; so&comma; I collected from the APC candidate and joined the party&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Again&comma; I challenged them to bring evidence&comma; and nobody was able to provide any proof&period; What they did was to call me from behind to tell me that their media handlers did not get clearance from the necessary authorities before publishing that information&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;If I actually collected N50m&comma; the proof would have been there&comma; and those in APGA would have been the first to push it on the social media &&num;8211&semi; but they had no proof&semi; just as they didn&&num;8217&semi;t have any proof when they said I collected N50m to support Soludo&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The lawmaker&comma; who is the chairman&comma; Anambra State House of Assembly Committee on Sports and Youths Development&comma; expressed surprise that since he was supporting Governor Soludo&comma; nobody from his constituency asked him about his <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">scorecard&semi;<&sol;a> but now that he joined APC&comma; his people are now asking him to present his achievements for the past two years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said&colon;<em><strong> &&num;8220&semi;I had continued to do my constituency projects without making any noise&comma; and without posing on a photograph to showcase what I&&num;8217&semi;ve been doing&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;Unlike other lawmakers&comma; in the past two years&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve not missed plenary sitting for one day&period; I was the most punctual lawmaker in the Anambra State House of Assembly as presently constituted&period; The only exception is sometime ago&comma; when I was in Abuja because of a critical political decision I took of recent&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;ve spent several millions of naira paying school fees for students in both secondary and tertiary institutions&semi; as well as offsetting hospital bills for hundreds of indegent persons in my constituency&period; There are hundreds of businesses belongings to individual members of my constituency that are surviving today because of our support&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The lawmaker said he was doing all those things because of the kind of support members of his constituency gave him when he contested for the position he is presently occupying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to him&comma; majority of members of Nnewi North State Constituency&comma; including market women&comma; the late Senator Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah&comma; and even people that did not know him contributed several millions of naira for his campaign and election&period; APC lawmaker Ike says he disagrees with the policies of the state governor Charles Soludo&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the prospects of the APC and its candidate in the November 8 election in Anambra&comma; Hon&period; Ike averred that the APC is capable of winning the election and govern the state credibly&comma; irrespective of whatever bad name they give the party in Anambra and the southeast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&&num;8220&semi;They&&num;8217&semi;re only giving the party bad name here&semi; but behind the scenes&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;ll be romancing with the party&comma; running to stakeholders of the party for one support and help or the other&period; Tell me any big name in Anambra and southeast that is not in the APC&comma; including Governor Charles Soludo&period; Soludo is in APC&period; APGA has no presidential candidate&period; Soludo and his party are supporting Tinubu and APC with everything they have&period; What then is wrong that I am supporting the APC candidate&quest; All of us are in the APC&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;