A former factional candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance for the November 6, Anambra governorship election, Chukwuma Umeoji, has defected to the All Progressives Congress, a week to the election.

Umeoji, who is the current member of the House of Representatives representing Aguata Federal Constituency in Anambra State, as well as his faction, was sacked by the Supreme Court after the Independent National Electoral Commission listed him as APGA’s candidate.

The court subsequently ordered INEC to replace Umeoji with Professor Charles Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as the candidate of APGA for the next Saturday’s governorship election.

Umeoji defected to the APC along with two House of Assembly members and thousands of party supporters.

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This was contained in a statement on Saturday by the factional APGA National Publicity Secretary, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere.

It was titled, ‘Umeoji, two state lawmakers dump APGA for APC, declare support for Andy Uba.’

The statement added that the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the APC, Governor Mai Mala Buni, had received Umeoji.

The statement read partly, “With this development, APGA has lost its simple majority in the House of Assembly and has become a minority party, while the APC has become the majority party in the state House of Assembly.

“This is clearly not the best of times for the All Progressives Grand Alliance as the November 6 Anambra State governorship election draws nearer.

“The gale of defection that has so far hit the ruling party in the state in the build-up to the election is clearly an indication that APGA has lost its political grip on the state and hence may lose the forthcoming election.”