Lagos — After the winner of the governorship election in Anambra State was announced on Sunday, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, spoke to newsmen on the conduct of the election. Charles Ajunwa was there

Can you tell us how you emerged victorious in the governorship election?

Well, the people of Anambra State of course knew where the bread was buttered most and that is why they decided this way.

How do you feel about APGA winning this election?

If anybody covered our final rally at Nnewi on Monday, I was very categorical at Nnewi that no political party can dislodge APGA in Anambra State at this point in time. Reason being that the party has served our people very well. Secondly, the party has interest of the people of this zone at heart. With somebody like Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu as our leader who followed us round the state during the campaign, it would have been uphill task for anybody to come in and say this people are joking.

So, we were sure we are going to win. What we were asking for at that point had always been credible, free and fair elections and INEC tried free and fair elections yesterday and it produced the result the people are yearning for.

Do you now have confidence in Prof. Maurice Iwu?

It has nothing to do with Maurice Iwu as a person. It's about the commission and all the times I had criticized the commission it was based on the actions taken within the commission. So, is not a question of whether I have confidence in somebody who is on public duty.

That does not arise. But having said that Prof. Maurice Iwu has done well in this election and what he has done now is that he had done a great deal towards redeeming himself and I will like him to keep on this track. In democracy, once the people decide to have anybody as an umpire, you must allow that person to have access to the position the people have given him or her.

The election has come and gone but the impact is what people are talking about now. Do you think the victory of your party will create an in-road to other states in the South-east?

Well the potential is there. Anambra is the envy of the sourrounding states. This is because we have delivered on our promises. We initiated and delivered laudable programmes. Anambra is now a reference point for other states in the zone. Because of the goodwill of the governor, because of the character of APGA, we hope that, overtime, we can make inroad into other states in the zone.

How do you see this argument that had it not been for the crisis in PDP, may be the outcome of the election would have been different?

That is a lame argument. If you look at the result of the election, Obi had made a leap that will be difficult for any party to catch up. If you look at the scores and you put the votes of all the PDP people together, they couldn't have match up to what Obi had. Obi won in all the three senatorial zones. He won the highest number of local governments in all those zones. In Anambra South, where Soludo and Ukachukwu hail from, he won five out of seven local governments. In his own zone, he won four out of seven local governments.

In the North, he won four out of seven local governments. You can see that he is the candidate that enjoyed the support of the people across the state. Soludo and Uba did not win any council in their zones. They only won in the North. Obi's victory is because of his superlative performance in his first tenure. He was able to deliver projects. If all the candidates from PDP were put on one platform with a candidate to represent them, Obi would still have won.

What is your leadership doing to make APGA stronger, especiallly with regards to the other faction led by Okorie? Are you working to bring him back into the party?

I want to tell you that Okorie is not missed in the party. Also the issue of faction in APGA is a media creation. APGA had been one family since 2003. On Okorie, Monday before the election, Okorie declared support for Ngige, after he had hobnobbed with Uba and Ukachukwu. But you saw the outcome of the election. His support for Ngige had no impact on the outcome of the election. I want to say that Okorie is a persona non grata in APGA. But if he says he wants to come back, I have said what he needed to do.

We are brothers and we are not against his return but he must first apologise publicly.

What would you say is the significance of your victory?

The significance of our victory is that it has shown that Nigeria can survive with a multiparty democracy. The significance is that smaller party should be allowed to operate in areas where they appeal to the electorate. But what we have is that the PDP has been trying to muzzle and overwhelm other parties.

I want to comment on the candidates during the campaign. I will say I was disappointed with the conduct of some of the candidates during the campaign. One candidate that was outstanding, calm and maintained his mien is Andy Uba. The other is Hon. Uche Ekwunife, who embarked on grassroots campaign, but the people said it is not yet time for her. I will say I was disappointed with Dr Chris Ngige. He made wild allegations against Obi and he thought with that he could dethrone him. But we saw the result of the election. Now that election has come and gone, the attitude of some candidates is also commendable. Soludo has conceded victory since he lost in his local government. Uba has congratulated Obi. I want to congratulate all the candidate that have congratulated Obi.