The Deputy Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Senator Uche Ekwunife, has apologised to Anambra State’s Governor Chukwuma Soludo and his wife over an allegation of infidelity against the First Lady Nonye Soludo.
But Governor Soludo and his wife have dismissed as “another fabrication” the apology credited to the female Senator over her defamatory remarks against them.
The Senator and the Governor’s wife had been engaged in a bitter war of words, following a verbal exchange said to have been sparked by the Governor, who accused the Senator of holding a fake PhD.
Ekwunife had dragged the First Lady into the political dispute with the Governor, making an infidelity allegations Mrs Soludo, who responded by challenging both women to take a fidelity test and a paternity test for all their children.
However, Ekwunife, in a press release signed on her behalf by her Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Tony Ezike, apologised to Soludo and his wife.
She also urged the public to disregard a trending story suggesting she had alleged that former PDP godfather, Chief Chris Uba, fathered children with Governor Soludo’s wife.
She clarified that the story did not emanate from her or her supporters and urged members of the public to dismiss it.
The statement read: “The attention of Sen. Uche Ekwunife, the Anambra All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy Governorship Candidate, has been drawn to an article falsely attributed to her camp, alleging that Mrs. Nonye Soludo, the wife of the Anambra State Governor, had children for Chief Chris Uba.
“Sen. Uche Ekwunife categorically states that although she has been maligned, defamed, and disparaged by the Governor’s media team, the said publication did not emanate from her or her camp.
“She further wishes to apologise to the Governor, his wife, and the general public who may have been affected by the altercations of the past few days.
“Sen. Ekwunife calls on her supporters to remain focused and avoid any media writing that may suggest altercation with the First Family or any other person as she continues with her campaigns.”
However, in a strongly worded statement issued on Wednesday and signed by his Senior Special Assistant on New Media, Mazi Ejimofor Opara, the Governor said the apology did not emanate from the lawmaker and therefore lacked credibility.
The statement titled ‘Sen. Ekwunife’s Purported Apology: Another Fabrication Fit for the Waste Bin’, argued that the unsigned apology, said to have come from the “Ekwunife Campaign Organization” was suspicious, misleading, and inadequate.
According to Opara, there is no such campaign body since Ekwunife’s gubernatorial ticket was a joint one with the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Anambra State.
“The publication purporting to be an apology for the defamatory statements made against the Governor and his wife personally by Senator Ekwunife does not appear to have emanated from the Senator herself, given that her defamatory statements were made directly via recorded video and leaked audio conversation,” the statement said.
The Governor’s aide insisted that any retraction or apology must come directly from Ekwunife, using the same channels through which the offensive remarks were made.
“The so-called apology never referenced Madam Ekwunife’s initial video and audio but instead focused on an unsigned article. This only points to her complicity, directly or indirectly, as the source of the article. It implies that no genuine apology was intended or tendered,” Opara stated.
The Governor’s office also recalled that the First Lady, Dr. Nonye Soludo, had earlier challenged Ekwunife to clear herself on two issues: first, to swear an oath before the Blessed Sacrament affirming fidelity to her marriage; and second, to subject her children to a DNA test, alongside the Soludos’ own children, to disprove the infidelity allegations.
“Any contrite apology must follow a personal and direct retraction of her defamatory statements,” Opara emphasized, adding, “Slander or libel directly made by an individual cannot be vicariously dismissed by any agent or proxy.”
Describing the apology as “another unsubstantiated social media gossip,” the Soludo administration said it would proceed as though the document never existed, while still demanding a clear and unambiguous retraction from Ekwunife herself.
