The Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, has responded to rumors that he was asked to leave the VIP section of President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration ceremony.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that Soludo was allegedly barred from entering the state box during the inauguration in Abuja by DSS operatives.
In response to the allegations, the governor stated that he was directed to the VVIP section alongside other governors during the inauguration of the APGA regional headquarters on Tuesday in Awka.
He stated that if he had known that rumors about him being kicked out of the VIP section would go viral, he would have refused to go to the VVIP section and instead joined the masses because APGA is a party of the masses.
We were at the Eagle Square, venue of the inauguration in Abuja. The sitting arrangements were right where the VIPs were, and we went there, and they told us that we had a sitting arrangement, and they directed us to where we were supposed to stay, which was even VVIP.
So we left there and went along with the CBN Governor, other 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.
Actually, if I knew that it was what was going to happen, I would have preferred to stay with the masses, and that is where I belong. I am for the masses, and to demonstrate that what happened on that day is a thing of the masses, he said.
Speaking further, the governor explained the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as a party will work with the government of Tinubu.
He said:
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 centre and it has always collaborated with the party at the center.
When it was the PDP, APGA collaborated with the party and government at the centre and we, as it were, did not field any candidate because APGA worked with the party at the centre.”
We have not reviewed that position and if we will, that would be in the future, but for now. We shall work and collaborate with the party and government at the centre 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, he added.