By Charles Igbo
For the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, it is an avoidable loss, not a few people are saying.
One of its strong and long-standing members, Chief Victor Umeh, has dumped the Party and defected to the Labour Party.
Umeh was, also, the National Chairman of the Party for a long time.
Not many people adduce two reasons for why Umeh dumped APGA.
The first is that he was humiliated at the recent APGA Senatorial primaries.
A one-term Senator, Umeh has not been able to go back to the Senate since his first term. His hope of going back to the Senate, especially, with the victory of Professor Charles Soludo as the Governor of the State, was dashed when he was defeated. Apparently, he was shocked that he was not given a preferential treatment as the Party’s former National Chairman unlike Adams Oshiomhole, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who, last week, won the Senatorial ticket in his Edo District, unopposed.
But many have also said that Umeh’s defection to the Labour Party is strategic – for him.
Since former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi joined LP, the Party has suddenly become a “go-to” for thousands of people, especially, youths.
In Anambra State, it is roaring like a wild fire, and Labour Party is likely to take the State during the 2023 Presidential election.
Umeh has just picked the LP Senatorial ticket, and the calculation is: Since the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold same day, Umeh is likely to leverage on the Peter Obi effect and run away victorious.
