Leadership crisis tears Soludo Support Group apart, as Gov’s Chief Protocol Officer declines interview
BY RAYMOND OZOJI, Awka
From investigations, one of the most populated political support groups for Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, known as Soludo Support Group (SSG) is currently enmeshed in supremacy tussle over who should be the National Coordinator of the group.
This leadership tussle if not handled with utmost care may degenerate into an unpardonable catastrophe because the current supremacy battle between the Chief Protocol Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Soludo, Mr. Chinedu Nwoye Glamour and Mr. Arinzechukwu Awogu is certainly a bad omen for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), especially as the Obidient Movement gathers more momentum for the 2025 Anambra Governorship Election.
Further investigations into the leadership tussle rocking SSG has it that the group which fought tooth and nail during the 2021 Governorship Election with its numerical strength to ensure that Soludo became the governor, is currently suffering anarchy because the centre can no longer hold and things have fallen apart within the SSG family.
While the Chinedu Nwoye faction of SSG accused Awogu’s faction of sabotaging Soludo’s government because they were not ‘settled’ with political appointments; Awogu’s faction on the other hand accused Chinedu Nwoye Glamour of being power hungry and failing to relinquish power even when he has officially handed over to the new National Coordinator of SSG, Mr. Arinzechukwu Awogu.
These two factions of SSG are in dire situations at the moment. Recently, a meeting of the Awogu faction was convened at Maybond Hotel, Awka, where officers from across Nigeria were in attendance and very crucial issues regarding the way forward for SSG were discussed and deliberated upon.
However, our correspondent gathered that the Chinedu Nwoye faction had allegedly sent text messages to members not to attend the meeting held at Maybond Hotel Awka with a promise that they would be given contracts to execute, but the said members followed their conscience and attended as many took emergency flights from Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country to be at the SSG meeting in Awka.
An SSG member who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that ever since the election of Governor Soludo was achieved, there has been total disenchantment amongst members of Soludo Support Group.
The source stated that members felt being used, dumped and neglected because there were no meetings and no means of interaction which led to agitations amongst members.
He further disclosed that the agitations of members were misconstrued and that the governor was equally misinformed that the agitations were because they were not given political appointments or contracts.
The source maintained that those were misconceptions because the remote cause of the agitations were because after Soludo won the governorship election, they were all abandoned because the leadership of Chinedu Nwoye Glamour no longer called for meetings, even though it said SSG was established on the notion that even after the election, the group would remain a formidable force.
The source, however, told our correspondent that SSG got a new lease of life when Chinedu Nwoye Glamour handed over to Arinzechukwu Awogu.
He said Awogu’s regime formed what it called Reunion Committee which embarked on a recovery mission within and outside Anambra State.
It said the recovery mission didn’t go down well with some dramatis personae and all of a sudden, the leadership of Arinzechukwu Awogu came under attack as it was being blackmailed as instigating SSG members against the governor.
Meanwhile, the National Secretary, Soludo Support Group (SSG) Hon. Lion Tony Ezeigwe, opined that it is very pertinent to state that Soludo Support Group (SSG), a foremost pressure group in Anambra State and beyond, is one indivisible family that fought politically alongside other allies, for the emergence of Governor Soludo.
Ezeigwe said although there is an ongoing leadership crisis in the group, the fact remains that SSG is in support of Governor Soludo and all the developmental and people oriented projects his administration is carrying out in Anambra State.
He said it was the capacity that the group saw in the governor, that made them threw their support behind him from the onset.
The brand new National Coordinator of SSG and former Ogbaru council chairman, Mr. Arinzechukwu Awogu, stated categorically that he is not contending the leadership of SSG with anybody.
Awogu said, “I am the elected National Coordinator of SSG. It was in the gathering of SSG in June this year that I was elected as the National Coordinator of SSG. Everybody was there including the immediate past National Coordinator who also doubles as the Chief Protocol Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr. Chinedu Nwoye Glamour.
“There is absolutely no contestation as to who calls the shots. I am the one in charge of the SSG movement. If anyone is angling to that same position, then that fellow must be acting outside the provisions of the rules governing the body.
“The former National Coordinator cannot in a jiffy summersault the rules to be the National Coordinator again. It’s not done. So for us, there is an established leadership in SSG and there is no question about who is struggling the position with me. If anybody chooses, the fellow should wait till I serve out my tenure.”
Awogu who spoke exclusively with our correspondent, said any other gathering of SSG outside that of his leadership is illegal, null and void and of no effect.
He said it is common knowledge that SSG died few months into the new administration and for over two years, SSG couldn’t meet until after his House of Reps election in April this year and in May, he muted the idea of a reunion.
The ex-Ogbaru Council Chairman, said he pioneered and championed the reunion cause of the SSG which he said recorded sweeping success.
“That someone who has lost faith in the coming together of SSG and wanting to create a new body using current political appointees; now saw that the dried and dead bones have risen again and is now systematically coming back to hijack it even when he has voluntarily indicated interest to relinquish power, which he did and now coming through the back door to hijack it,” he said.
Awogu alleged that Chinedu Nwoye Glamour ran SSG aground, buried it and moved on and was afraid of his own shadow; “seeing that life has been made out of the same structure, now feels he could use his position in government to bamboozle people by promising them what was never conceived before.”
Though Awogu said in spite of the in-house issues within SSG, he still believes that Anambra State is an APGA enclave.
He said ‘Obidient or no Obidient,’ when it comes to governorship, Ndi-Anambra will ensure that APGA government succeeds and survives in the state.
He said it was for the sake of the foregoing that they speak to the conscience of those who are trying to factionalise SSG, to understand that the pitfall is catastrophic, adding that wisdom should prevail.
When our correspondent contacted the Chief Protocol Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Soludo on 4th October, 2023 for his response on the crisis tearing SSG apart, Chinedu Nwoye Glamour, didn’t honour phone calls from this reporter at 11:14am and 12:11pm respectively.
