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Tag: defections

I’m not bothered about defections in APC – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday night said that he was not bothered about the defections in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Buhari, who was responding to a question during an interactive session with the Nigerian community in Togo at the Nigerian Embassy, Lome, said most Nigerians appreciated the performance of his administration.

In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said “I am not bothered about the defections. Ordinary Nigerians have developed confidence in us and are defending us. I assure you, majority of Nigerians back home are appreciative of our efforts.”

Expressing delight in seeing the Nigerians who had travelled from the five regions of Togo to welcome him in Lome, President Buhari said he was pleased to hear them commend the performance of his administration.

He assured them that his administration had remained steadfast in keeping to its three campaign promises of providing security, improving the economy and fighting corruption.

The President noted that if past governments had utilised even 25 per cent of the huge oil revenue available to them, Nigerians would not be complaining today, citing the $16 billion reportedly spent on electricity and yet Nigerians could not see the power.

Restating his administration’s commitment to providing critical infrastructure, providing loans to farmers thereby cutting rice importation by more than 90 per cent, President Buhari said all recovered illegally acquired assets would now be sold and the money paid into the treasury in the administration’s renewed anti-graft campaign.

“I assure you that we are making progress in security as some displaced farmers are returning to their farms. We will continue to work very hard for our dear country,” he stressed.

Read Also: How Buhari’ll win in 2019, by Campaign

In his welcome address, the Nigerian Ambassador to Togo, Joseph Olusola Iji, said the close to 2 million Nigerians in Togo were law-abiding and peaceful, even as he drew attention to the inability of the Nigerian Mission in Lome to issue Nigerian passports, making applicants to go to Ghana or Benin Republic.

While representatives of top bank executives commended the economic policies of the Federal Government especially the Ease of Doing Business, agricultural revolution and anti-corruption campaign, various leaders of the Nigerian Community also lauded the discipline, transparency and accountability that the current administration has introduced into governance.

They also called for government assistance towards the completion of community’s on-going school building project in order to overcome the lack of good English schools in that country.

On its part, the APC Togo Chapter, told President Buhari not to be worried about the defections from the party, assuring him of its support in the 2019 presidential election.

The governors of Cross River and Niger States; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Interior; the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment; the National Security Adviser; the Chief of Defence Staff; the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency; and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, were among the top government officials who accompanied the President to his first official engagement on arrival in Lome ahead of the Joint ECOWAS/ECCAS Summit, and the 53rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, among others.

July 30, 2018
Defections and other matters

Democracy is at its defining moment in this country. The political space is awash with negative tendencies that reinforce doubts on our capacity to evolve and sustain a virile democratic culture. Emerging indications abound that politicians have neither learnt from our sordid pasts nor are they prepared to part ways with ruinous orientations and tendencies.

Vote buying and desperation to win by all means which featured dominantly during the just concluded Ekiti State governorship election are all part of these dysfunctions. Politicians and voters were all culpable. While the politician deployed his ill-gotten wealth to gain advantage, voters reduced themselves to victims of the lure of the stomach.

But the dangers of vote buying to representative democracy seem to be compounded by the absence of any discernable ideological difference between the leading political parties. In the absence of such distinguishing principles, pecuniary interests gain ascendancy. Even where parties lay claim to some form of ideological leaning, loyalty and commitment to such principles are totally of no consequence to members. That accounts for the ease with which elected officials decamp from one party to the other.

Last Tuesday was particularly intriguing. The nation was taken aback when news filtered that the official residences of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu were sealed off by security agencies preventing them from leaving their premises. The previous night, the police had invited Saraki to report at one of their offices in Abuja to clarify issues on his alleged connection with the Offa robbery.

But he raised alarm alleging contrivance to keep him incommunicado on account of suspicions that some senators were to decamp from the ruling party in the plenary the following day. He faulted the invitation by 8pm to report at 8am even as he claimed knowledge of a report from the Director of Public Prosecution DPP absolving him of any complicity. Despite the police cordon, he managed to find his way into the premises of the National Assembly in circumstances that remains cloudy.

Ekweremadu was not that lucky. He was held hostage for the greater part of the day only for a letter of invitation bearing that day’s date to be served him to report to the EFCC in connection with alleged infractions. The police have denied invading Saraki’s residence claiming it was staged by his security men. They promised to empanel investigation on the issue.

Events were to follow in very quick succession at both chambers of the National Assembly as 15 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives defected from the All Progressives Congress APC. The Peoples Democratic Party PDP benefited handsomely from the defections.

With the turn of events, it began to make sense that the invasion of the residences of the two top officials of the senate had a direct link with the envisaged defections at the senate. It gave credence to the theory earlier floated by Saraki that the invasion was to prevent him and his deputy from presiding over the plenary and forestall the defections. Matters were not helped by the surprising invitation to Saraki to appear at the police station that early morning. All these reinforce suspicion that there was more to it than we were made to believe. It is difficult to fathom what urgency there was in that matter that Saraki should not have been given sufficient time to report if indeed there was need for that.

There was the other theory that preventing the two principal officers from accessing the senate was to pave way for a group loyal to President Buhari to impeach the two leaders of the upper legislative chamber and enthrone puppets to do the bidding of the powers that be. It is difficult to dismiss this dimension.

Events in Ekweremadu’s residence came out ridiculous when the EFCC served him an invitation letter bearing the day’s date requiring him to report to their office that same day. So what offence justified the invasion when no prior invitation was extended to him without being honoured? All this cast doubt on the genuineness of the invasion and reinforce claims that the objective was to create vacuum at the leadership of the senate and possibly provide grounds for the removal of its principal officers.

But democracy and the rule of law were utterly ridiculed by the unsavory resort to arm twisting and menacing tactics. It portrayed the police and the EFCC on a mission to hound and intimidate dissenting opinions that are irreducible decimals in any thriving democratic enterprise. Even if the police get away with its claim that it had no hands in the invasion by probing its officials deployed to Saraki’s house from a predetermined end, it is difficult to envisage how the EFCC will come out of the mess at Ekweremadu’s residence.

Not with the letter inviting him to come to their office after they had barricaded his residence for several hours. So at what point was that letter raised and what informed the invasion when there was yet any invitation to him? The EFCC was less than professional in its invasion of Ekweremadu’s residence. It is bad for an agency that purports to be fighting the all important war against corruption in public offices to adorn the robe of a pliable tool of political intrigue. Days after the show of force, nothing has been heard of the allegations by the EFCC.

The same agency exposed its duplicity when soon after the defeat of the PDP candidate in the Ekiti State governorship election, it hurriedly posted in its website that it was eagerly awaiting Governor Ayodele Fayose for trials since he would lose immunity on completion of office. The agency hurriedly yanked off the post from its official website and made failed attempts to deny it as public criticisms mounted. But it struck many as an act of indiscretion and bias that demeans the credibility and impartiality of the agency.

Beyond all this, the gale of defections is a clear evidence of inability of the APC to manage success. This is a party that owed its electoral success to claims of progressivism adumbrated in its change mantra. Capitalizing on the serial weaknesses of the PDP, it made lofty promises that saw to its success at the polls. Soon after, schism set in within its ranks. Party preferences in the election of principal officers of the National Assembly were breached as factions struggled for dominance.

The matter festered with the inability of the party to put its house in order. Efforts by the president and national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole to reconcile positions belatedly met brick walls. President Buhari claims those defecting have no issues with him or his government. But he is the leader of both the party and the government. It is difficult to fathom how he could possibly repudiate responsibility for the current predicament of his party. Even if the defectors have nothing against him or his government, the overall impact of the mass exit will rob off negatively on the government he leads.

Again, if defecting legislators have nothing against Buhari or his government, the grouses of defecting governors must be with either or both. So the attempt to shield the president from the crisis in his party cannot go far because he was in a position to get all the grouses sorted out before they got out of hand.

The same passivity in handling serious issues was manifest when Oshiomhole said he would not lose sleep if party members decamped. I am yet to see that man who will not lose sleep while his house is burning. Both the APC and PDP are currently laying claims to superior numerical strengths in the senate. They are embroiled bandying figures as to which of them controls a majority of senators. That should be instructive enough.

It is also an uncanny development that the supposedly progressive APC legislators are defecting in their numbers to the PDP which the government has deployed its arsenal to paint in disparaging colours. Either the defectors have repudiated their claims to progressivism; see no difference in the two parties or both. If they still wear their progressive garb in their new party, the difference between the APC and PDP will get increasingly blurred.

July 30, 2018
Defections caused by APC’s failures, says Wike

As far as Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike is concerned, the recent gale of defections that hit the All Progressives Congress (APC) was due to failures of the Federal Government.

He declared the APC-led Federal Government runs on vindictiveness, intimidation and illegality, whilst denying Nigerians the dividends of democracy.

Addressing reporters after projects inspection yesterday in Port Harcourt, Wike stated that more high profile defections are in the offing across the country.

He inspected dualisation of the Elelenwo-Akpajo Road, the construction of Judges Quarters in Port Harcourt and the ongoing construction of Mile One Market.

The governor said: “Politics is all about alignments and re-alignments. We expected these defections, knowing that the ruling party at the national level has completely failed the people.

“It is not hidden that even when they had majority in the two chambers of the National Assembly, they never had it easy because their representatives knew the APC has nothing to offer the people.”

Wike said that the PDP is working round the clock with all stakeholders to put an end the APC Federal Government in 2019.

July 29, 2018
Defections and the Saraki conundrum

Minutes before I sat down to write this article, I believed I had the opening paragraphs already cast in stone. That was until I saw the incredible piece from which I shall now proceed to quote at some length, as it uncannily captures a picture perfect image of the departing public reprobates now quitting the ruling party, and furiously returning to their likes in a party Nigerians overwhelmingly rejected only four years ago.

Written by Dr Uche Diala. a Buharist, patriot and nationalist, it says inter alia in : After The Defection Tramadol: “I deliberately left this update till today to allow the noisy neighbours fully revel in their defection lala land before we bring them back to reality. Yesterday, in their characteristic mischief, they regaled their hypnotised followers with tales of how the Gestapo (not Nigeria Police) held their capons, Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekeremadu captive whereas Saraki and co already had their plans all worked out. While Saraki was transmitting on the floor of the Senate, Ekweremadu was popping champagne at his home with Olisa Metuh, even as the loquacious PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ologbodiyan, was, in his usual drivel, declaring Ekweremadu missing.

In their hate induced propaganda, they regaled their desperate hangers- on with stories of how Saraki had telephoned the U N and the U S and how American Marines were on their way to dethrone Buhari and free their ‘abducted’ lead actors. In their drunkenness, they thought they had won the 2019 elections already. They deluded themselves that because 14 nomadic senators and 32 HOR members (most of who were not going to get return tickets under the APC, anyway) left the APC, then Buhari and the party should lose sleep, forgetting that the APC still had control of majority states, and majority in the House of Representatives even by their own calculation. Some smart by half ones among them will jump in here to say it was same thing that happened under the PDP in 2015 but in their myopia, they conveniently forgot that the key to APC’s success was the merger of three major, established and successful political parties: namely the ANPP, ACN and CPC with elements of APGA, all of which had control of states and Senate and HOR seats from across the federation.

They also forgot that the singular galvanising force for that movement was a certain man of integrity – General Muhammadu Buhari as every movement needs a credible Point’s man. Who’s the Point’s man of this drunken PDP ensemble which, seven months to a general election, still can’t find a candidate but is looking for “a Northerner that can match Buhari’s integrity”?

No quality. Just quantity. Hogwash!

So when they liken their basket of defectors to that of 2015, I ask where’s their Rotimi Amaechi or their Tibubu or their Rochas Okorocha or their Adams Oshiomhole , that any reasonable political watcher should lose sleep over? This should not be an issue but they made it one”. They will wake up today to realise that they still .belong to the most corrupt and discredited political party that no decent Nigerian wants to touch even with a long pole, and that only dogs return to their vomit.

They will wake up to realise that the Nigerian Airways, Ajaokuta Steel Plant and many other Industries and factories they killed off are back and tens of thousands of kilometres of abandoned roads, highways, bridges, power plants, unpaid salaries etc that they dumped on Nigerians after stealing the country blind, are already being fixed by PMB, and that external reserve, from their near zero, is now almost 50 billion dollars.”

What a titillating spectre?

Not a few Nigerians attributed the origins of the one fly in the Nigerian political ointment since June 2015, namely, the Saraki conundrum, to Buhari’s quip: I can work with anybody.

But I say, in mitigation of the president’s obvious naivety, that nobody, especially not the straight like a rod Muhammadu Buhari, a man of incandescent integrity, could ever have thought there could be lurking somewhere in the Nigerian political firmament, any one so unconscionable, so selfish, and to quote Dr Diala again, any man so suffused in subterfuge, divide and rule, manipulation, and serial betrayal, even of his own biological father, like Bukola Saraki.

Hell, how can anybody be so unreflecting his name would appear in literally every odious breaking news: Panama papers, ‘death’ of banks, and sundry allegations of illicit undertakings including one that is currently trending; that is, the one on the most audacious armed robbery escapade, ever in Nigeria?

What manner of man is Bukola Saraki?

Were the APC gifted with an Adams Oshiomhole, as chairman from the get go, Saraki should have long become history. Numberless times on these pages, as my readers would recall, I have suggested that he had no place in a party of change like the APC and that he should be expelled on account of his mala fide (mesu jamba) by which he traded, not only the party, but the entire Buhari government, for the senate presidency. Had the weak APC leadership under an otherwise decent Chief Oyegun then heeded that call, especially long before Saraki dazed his purchasable colleagues with committee memberships which he adroitly deployed, our man won’t, today, be the political cancer he has become to Nigeria.

So dexterous is Saraki that even now that all his bed fellows and supine, emotional hangers – on in the red chamber have departed the party, he still stays spat in office, claiming he is of the APC.

What is a man worth, without a sense of shame?

What manner of Senate president would dodge police invitation for interrogation in a matter as grievous as having over 30 persons, including policemen, slaughtered by those who alleged, in written statements, that he is their patron and armourer?

And what do his hailers say when a man in his high position lies shamelessly regarding his alleged police barricade of his house at the very time that same police was expecting him to be in their office for questioning ? The police has since controverted this lie claiming that Saraki used some of the over 170 policemen allotted to the senate for this obvious subterfuge. Aren’t the chorus boys on social media ashamed they ever believed this hogwash? Granted you can forgive these e-rats who are already so far gone in infamy, what of a man who is forever scheming to become the Nigerian president lying so shamelessly? If he ever succeeds, won’t Nigeria, one day become a mere item in another set of Panama Papers? Do Nigerians who hail Saraki, or those Kwarans, who not only vote, but venerate him like a god, really think? Can they see the more polished, non feudal Yoruba become electoral slaves to the family of the much more venerated, and, in comparable avatar, Chief Obafemi Awolowo?

What a people?

From where do, at least the Yoruba portion, get the inner strength to bear these serial indignities and what did Pa Sunday Olawoyin not do to free his people from this mental slavery? I can even understand this under Bukola’s father, the suave, very kind and accommodating, Chief Olusola Saraki, but certainly not with this his son who knows only self, and for whom even your senators allegedly kneel down to talk to?

Pray, what has he done for you to compare with the millions he takes monthly as senator and, on top of which he once also earned pension from the state? Was your water, at a given time, poisoned or you were, unknown to you, inoculated? I think the time has come for some of your highly educated ones, and they are legion – thanks to the inimitable man of his people, Sir Ahmadu Bello – to thoroughly interrogate this fiasco.

What does it say of a senate president who is doing everything to politicise a criminal matter? You were indicted, based on the testimony of no less than five armed robbers, and you’re saying your written response is enough when the IG, says no, it isn’t? Are you saying you should be a judge in your own case or, rather, that you are above the laws of the land?

Happily enough, APC has now come to the realisation that Saraki, with all his supercilious appendages, should be expelled from the party if they won’t leave honourably, of their own. Bolaji Abdullahi could then replace the fumbling Ologbodiyan in their new abode.

As Senator Abu Ibrahim and others said at a recent parley with the President, Saraki should now be shown the way out. He has done enough havoc, doubling as Buhari’s chief antagonist.

However, to President Buhari must go a large part of the blame for the malfeasance I have chosen to call the Saraki conundrum. The award-winning journalist, Wale Adeoye, recently put this very perspicaciously on the Ekiti Panupo web portal when he wrote: “Now, the issue is not whether those fighting Buhari are “corrupt politicians”. Whether they are corrupt or not, it is mandatory for him to work with the National Assembly. His indecision and inability to make effective use of the radical wing of the judiciary remains his albatross. He is too slow to act. All he needed was to have galvanised the people at the beginning of his administration and deal decisively with corrupt politicians. We have seen examples in other countries with similar situation like that of Nigeria. He never did. He simply failed to find a solution to a complex problem and that is a complete failure of leadership”.

I am sure what Adeoye is saying here is that had President Buhari acted appropriately, and proactively, the national Assembly would have since been swept clean, rather than become a drain pipe on the country as well as what former President Olusegun Obasanjo called it.

Or why have a broom as your party logo?

In concluding, let us just say that Nigeria would be a much better place the day what ‘Saraki Conundrum’ represents in our politics has been fully, and completely, exorcised. Banning that, Nigerians will only continue to hope against hope.

July 29, 2018
Defections, deflections, deceptions and reflections

ON June 9, 2015 when the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, tactically defected to the Peoples Democratic Party following the treacherous maneuvers that propped him into office, one had raised some posers in an article titled ‘Saraki, Dogara’s emergence and the Buhari Presidency’ published on June 10. With the gale of lawmakers’ defections from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the PDP and African Democratic Congress last Tuesday, those questions remain relevant. It was as if one had prescient knowledge of what eventually played out on the floors of the two chambers that day when, in spite of all odds, Yakubu Dogara emerged as Speaker of the House of Representatives to wrap up a palace coup that culminated in Tuesday’s eventual exposition of an overcooked stew. We saw it coming even when the APC leadership kept living in denial, hoping it could patch up a house it built with spittle to hoist its flag of political success in 2015. It was a dream that never was.

In politics, if you don’t make calculating, deft moves to preserve your grip on power, you are bound to rue that error someday when the hawks of power come after you. For politics, in my understanding and with the way we play it here, is a scientific warfare in another means. While at it, you cannot afford to doze off. You must always be on the alert, ready to strike if need be. With the benefit of hindsight, I doubt if a neophyte President Muhammadu Buhari truly understood this key element of politics despite his many years in the top hierarchy of the military and as Head of State. In the Nigerian political environment with an ambience of perpetual mutual suspicion, Buhari’s blank cheque to work with just about everyone and anyone with a pretentious mien to move the country forward was suicidal. And we said as much when the 8th Senate was inaugurated and he shrugged off the marriage of convenience as one of the fine attributes of democracy in action. How could that heresy be acceptable to a man who swore to fight entrenched interests both within and without to a standstill? It is either Buhari couldn’t read through the deceptions or he simply didn’t care about the collateral damage it could inflict on party supremacy and cohesion. For him then, as long as it tallied with his political sloganeering of being friend to everyone and to nobody in particular, he must have assumed that it was going to be a roller-coaster ride. Well, it never was.

In the piece mentioned above, I had projected that the absolute surrender of the gavel of legislative authorities to the PDP legislators, in cahoots with some persons whose heads were with the APC but souls glued to the PDP, would spell doom for the fortunes of the ruling party and could make or mar Buhari’s administration. The ominous signs were just too glaring to be ignored by anyone who has the faintest idea about the dynamics of politics in this clime. Specifically, I had asked: “But what does the emergence of these dark horses mean for the PDP that many believe would go into extinction with the loss of the Presidency and many states in the last election? Is the PDP proving bookmakers wrong? Will the re- engineering of the party be initiated from the National Assembly? Is Saraki being positioned as the arrow head of the resurgence of the party? Will Saraki mend fence with the APC leadership which, in a swift reaction, had disowned him? How will the Senate under his watch relate with the executive that may not indulge in settlement as was the case in the Jonathan era?”

Today, we do not need to hazard answers to these posers. In just three years, the reality stares us in the face. The APC is going through an agonizing transformation, hemmed in by forces within. The insect that is eating deep into the heart of the APC lives inside the soul of the APC. Those who nudged Buhari to keep dancing on as they watch over his back have abandoned him in the middle of nowhere. Interestingly, they have gone back to the vomit of 2014—the PDP. However, it was not surprising to keen political observers that, when the bubble finally burst on Tuesday after months of tensions and speculations, the two undertakers turned out to be Saraki and Dogara. In reality, these two have operated with double identities as leaders of the National Assembly. It was true that they joined forces with the APC to bring down the Jonathan administration; they never left the PDP for one day. They were just tagging along looking for the appropriate time to jump ship. And that time began with defection of the first batch of legislators earlier in the week. Now, we are being treated to the drama in which their supporters have been pleading with them to defect immediately to the PDP just like we saw in Benue and Kwara states during the week.

While one cannot blame the leadership of the PDP for gloating over what they described as the ‘loss of political virginity by Buhari’, one is curious to know what kind of power-sharing formula the PDP has put in place to accommodate the demands of the defectors most of whom would insist on automatic tickets in the 2019 elections. It is yet to be seen if the party has truly learnt the hard lesson from its 16 years of maladministration and three years of political hiatus. Beyond the return of some of its prodigal sons and daughters to its fold, nothing suggests that the PDP has weaned itself of the political rascality and malfeasance that almost got it into political oblivion in 2015. It would be soul-lifting if this latest gale of defection does not end up as part of the wily deceptions of its inglorious past.

However, it is instructive to note that Saraki and Dogara have merely borrowed a leaf from the same script the APC used in grabbing power in 2015. The case of Governor Aminu Tambuwal, who was then the Speaker of the House of Representatives, is still fresh in the mind. Tambuwal waited till the last day of the coup before pulling the rugs off the feet of the PDP leadership. That is exactly why no one is surprised that both leaders didn’t defect with their colleagues on Tuesday before adjourning sitting till September 26. It would have been suicidal to do that, knowing that it wasn’t clear if they could muster majority vote to remain in power. The strategy, I assume, would also provide them ample time to recruit more defectors to the opposition party before the elections. It didn’t start today. It started right from the inception of the 8thNational Assembly when the new bride decided to explore the possibility of a romantic foxtrot with her ex-lover. As it is, the chemistry clicked and thus begun the prolonged battle to frustrate the executive in both chambers.

If Buhari was unbothered then, it would be suicidal to toe the same line now not minding the fact that he wished the defectors well. Nothing points to this fact more than the series of meetings the President has been holding with the remaining lawmakers in his party. With the sudden deflections of two out of the 15 senators that allegedly defected pledging their allegiance to the APC, the success of the Saraki/Dogara coup is under serious threat. It is too early in the day to celebrate Buhari’s political deflowering as the PDP spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan had put it. The experience of the last three years of working with the enemies and being assailed with pebbles and stones should count for something. Having realised that it wasn’t a smooth sail as he had wished despite the betrayal, the Buhari of today has done away with the aloofness that cost him dearly last week. Those underrating his ability to strike hard might just be in for a surprise. The Buhari of today has the benefit of deeper reflections of the choices he made in the past. The die is cast and we can only wait to see who emerges victorious in Nigeria’s seasonal game of political treachery and deadly intrigues. No doubt, the next few months would be interesting times for our cloak and dagger politics. Wouldn’t it?

July 28, 2018
Red card, defections and other stories

IT was just a matter of time before it happened. All has not been well within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the coaliton of parties, which wrested power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

The APC, their beloved party, some members alleged, has become more like PDP when it was in power, if not worse. Most of these aggrieved members were from the rump of PDP, which walked out of the then ruling party’s convention in Abuja.

That action was the beginning of PDP’s fall from power. Among the protesting party chieftains then were governors, senators and House of Representatives members. In no time, they formed the New PDP (nPDP) on which platform they joined forces with the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to form APC.

In the past three years, APC has pursued with zeal its programmes, which are aimed at making lives better for the people. APC’s fight against corruption and the recovery of looted funds have, however, brought it in collision with many people, including some top members of the party. Rather than support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, they are against it because as they claimed ‘’it is selective’’.

The crisis in APC today can be located in the anti-corruption war and the relationship between the leadership of the National Assembly, on one hand, and the Presidency and the party’s leadership on the other hand. Not to talk of that with some governors.

Many lawmakers do not fancy the anti-graft war, which they feel is directed at some of them, and this has further caused a division among these erstwhile political friends.

APC was the party many Nigerians looked forward to, following its formation, to make a difference in their lives. As at the time it was formed, the people were fed up with PDP. It is, therefore, unfortunate that today, the same APC, which was expected to bring hope and consolation to them is in crisis. Will this fresh crisis engendered by the defection of 51 of its National Assembly members comprising 14 senators and 37 representatives affect its political fortune? This is the question the party leadership must answer.

The defectors will never wish the party well, just as those who left PDP for APC plotted the then ruling party’s downfall in the 2015 elections. To lose 51 lawmakers at one fell swoop is not something to brush aside with a wave of the hand. Some of them may have climbed the backs of others to get to power, as the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, observed on Tuesday shortly after their defection, but tell me who is that politician that does not need a strong backer to rise.

These are trying times for APC. Just imagine what it is going through when it is yet to complete its first term in office. It is obvious that the defectors’ aim is to scuttle the party’s chances in the 2019 elections. After severing relations with the party, there is no way they will ever wish it well. Their loyalty now is to the PDP to which many of them have returned. It is not even certain that we have seen the last of these defections, which Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom hinted about last week.

Ortom also crossed from PDP to APC on the eve of the 2015 elections and was given the party’s governorship ticket. He won the election, with the support of Benue strongman Senator George Akume. It seems Ortom and his godfather have fallen apart and the governor is afraid that he may not get a second term ticket. Last week, the governor whose state is under the siege of herdsmen said he had been given a ‘’red card’’ . A red card when he is not a footballer? Well, it was a manner of speech. Ortom, who has the sympathy of his people because of the killings in his state, said he is now out of the pitch as a result of the card. ‘’I am waiting for another club to sign me’’, he told his people.

What the governor was saying in effect is that he too may jump ship if nothing is done to reassure him of his place within the party. Oshiomhole has told him he has nothing to fear, but it seems he does not believe his chairman. The governor is still going around talking about the red card. It is also not certain that more people will not leave the party at the National Assembly. The defection of the 51 on Tuesday may have been to prepare the ground for the next set of defectors. One name being touted to quit the party is Senate President Bukola Saraki, who got that position contrary to the party’s wish. Will Saraki defect?

All signs are that he will because many of his loyalists are among those that defected on Tuesday in the National Assembly. In his home Kwara State many of his supporters have also been leaving the party. Saraki and his men are fighting the party for not according the Senate president the respect they think he deserves. To Saraki, what has been happening to him in the past three years, is political persecution. He said the time wasted on such persecution could have been spent on making lives better for the people.

This is a delicate issue which the APC must handle with tact because of the forthcoming elections. It is not good to lose members when elections are near like this, so the party must move fast to do damage control. You cannot be too sure about elections. No two elections are the same. That the people voted APC and Buhari in 2015 does not mean that they will do the same in 2019. The defectors have their own plans; the APC should come up with its and not assume that they are political paper weight.

Like what happen before the 2015 elections, the aggrieved APC members have formed the Reformed APC (rAPC). With rAPC, they have signed a pact with PDP and 38 other parties to slug it out with APC in the 2019 elections. What is APC’s response to this challenge? It should not make the same mistake as the PDP did in 2015 when the then ruling party dismissed APC’s threat of wresting power from it as nothing.

Agony of a dad

THERE was pin-drop silence as he spoke at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday. He did not give his name nor did he allow his photograph to be taken. He was in pain, serious pain. His wife and daughter were burnt in the June 28 Otedola Bridge tanker explosion. He spent over N4 million on them in a private hospital before moving them to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

He is not satisfied with the treatment they are getting, so he wants to move them abroad. The only snag is that the passport of the girl, who is his only daughter, has expired. She cannot be moved in her condition to any of the Passport Offices in Lagos for capturing (taking of her picture). So, he is begging Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to help in getting the authorities in Abuja to bring the necessary machine down to LASUTH for the girl’s capturing. Nothing can beat a father’s love for his daughter. I know that the listening Governor Ambode will hearken to the man’s cry. May his wife and daughter live.

July 26, 2018
Defections from APC good riddance, says Oshiomhole

All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman Adams Oshiomhole said that the defection of some Senators and House of Representatives members from the party was better for it.

He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, the defectors do not believe in the ideals of the APC.

Besides, said the chairman, he would like to build a solid party, which is not just a vehicle for acquiring political office or personal gain.

Oshiomhole pointed out that the defectors have no electoral value, stressing that Buhari scored more votes than them in their own constituencies.

Oshiomhole said: “Well, my attitude is, like I have told you before, as the National Chairman, I am committed to listening to very legitimate grievances and engaging all those who are aggrieved that we can see through their grievances. But I insist that I will not miss sleep one minute over mercenary activities.

“I had said and I want to repeat, this business of governance must be driven by men and women of honour. If the only motivation is personal interest, what is in it for me, what I have gained, how many people I have done xyz for, if that is the basis, the earlier those in this business of personal gains, the earlier they return to where they belong the better.

“This party that I am privileged to chair is not worried at all; we are not disturbed. I am not going to miss my sleep and we will go into the campaign. Check the electoral results, you will find that a lot claimed to have decamped on a good day the vote they got that made them members of the Senate, our president got much more votes in their constituency. So, we are not fooled at all.

“The thing going on is that you have a lot of so called big masquerades with very little and no electoral value. I have tried my best which I think I needed to do to give people comfort, those who claimed to be aggrieved. But those who have other hidden agenda that are not negotiable, I am not going to be able to appease anyone who expects x-level of return and the system is not delivering it, in terms of personal return. I can’t solve that.

“But those who felt that in terms of within the management of the party they have issues, those ones are on the table it can be dealt with. But those who have issues under the table they are beyond me.”

The party chief went on:

“But let me assure you, I am so happy that over time that water will find its level. Because, if you remember what I said the day I formally declared my interest to contest, I had said, to be a progressive party means we must be clear that it cannot be a party for everyone. We have to be sure that you subscribe to the values and ideals of a progressive party. If indeed you belong to the extreme right, and you mistakenly find yourself in a progressive party, obviously that is not where you belong.

“As soon as you realise that you can’t adjust to the requirement of progressive, which is people driven, people based, people oriented and you choose to return to the right wing where you know what the name of the game was, share the money, it is your choice.

“But, I need to remind you, I am not a poor student of struggle. I am not a professor of struggle; I am a product of struggle, I know what I am talking about. Very soon Nigerians will go to the polls and we will see who will deliver what in his constituency.”

On the implication of the defection, he said: “No no no. The business of the Senate or the National Assembly is not to legislate for the good governance of APC; it is to legislate for the good governance of Nigeria.

“If people have chosen that it is more politically convenient to suspend the process of legislation ahead of time because it is not convenient for their political interests and choose to insubordinate the Nigerian national interest for that purpose, it is their choice. If there are implications, it is for the a Nigerian nation, not for APC.

Speaking on the siege to the residences of Senate President Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, Oshiomhole said it was a security matter that he could not comment on.

He said: “When you are dealing with law and order issues, I am not going to stand here and make comment on the basis of your own speculations. I need to have the details.

“I am not into security apparatus, I do not understand how they operate but you also don’t want to accuse me of obstruction of justice, which a democracy require.

“So I am going to limit myself to my brief, namely issues that affect membership and the running of the APC. Just to reassure you, I am happy. I have made this point long ago that with time, Nigerians will really have to be able to say, this is what this party stands for, this is what the other party stands for.”

“This is a thing that in the morning you will have breakfast with me, in the afternoon you are having lunch with python and in the evening you are having sugarcane with some other forces, I think in the interest of our nation we need to simplify these issues before the electorate. Because, the confusion is that you have coalition of people whose ideas are not compatible.”

Oshiomhole added: “To be very honest with you, it is better you formalise where you belong and be properly identified by your father’s name than purporting to bear my name and you are working for my opponent.

“Every observer, particularly the elite core of the Nigerian media that is represented in the State House, you know that if there has been opposition to this APC government, that opposition has come within he ranks of members of the APC, some in the National Assembly.

“I mean, how can we be in majority, for example, and we use that majority to elect opposition to take the number two slot in our own party. How could we have been in the majority and the President makes nominations and those nominations are lying on the floor of the Senate and the Senate will not confirm those nominations. Even if that Senate was formally led by opposition, the issue will be much more clearer but there have become much more complicated when those refusing to confirm the nominees purport to be members of our party. The earlier everybody properly identified where he belongs, in my view, this is it.”

“It is not in anybody’s interest, certainly not in the National interest that we continue to patch this democracy in a way that birds that are incompatible find itself. The point I have been trying to make is that we need to build a political that goes beyond the platform for election. So if you find that you can’t win because there is body in your constituency in the same party then you jump to other party so that you can win. And once the election is over we wait for the next four years.

“It will not be worth my while to preside over a national party that is simply an electoral platform.” he said

On the President’s reaction to the new development, Oshiomhole said: “Ah! You know the President’s spokespersons, talk to them.”

July 25, 2018
Defections: The drama, the facts

Will the defection of some senators and House of Representatives members from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) affect President Muhammadu Buhari’s chances in next year’s election? Group Political Editor Emmanuel Oladesu examines the politics of defection and its implications for both parties and the defectors.

Fourteen All Progressives Congress (APC) senators dumped the ruling party yesterday. The party saw the handwriting on the wall. Its leaders tried frantically to avert the crisis. But, their strategy apparently failed. The last-minute persuasion was either weak or too late. The big platform became decimated as no fewer than 14 senators and 37 House of Representatives members jumped ship.

Their next port of call for 11 of the defectors is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) , their natural habitat, which they deserted almost four years ago to team up with the APC. Three of them went to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). One of the defectors did not name his new party. There was jubilation in the main beneficiary opposition party. In the APC, opinion is divided on the defection. To analysts, the defection portends danger to the ruling party. But, some of the defectors may have also made some miscalculations. Both the APC and PDP may be facing an uncertain future.

To justify their exit, the defectors have successfully created an impression of cracks in the party. Since the constitution permits members to defect from a crisis-ridden party, the carving out of a ‘Reformed APC’ suggested division, which could warrant defection and attempted balkanisation. The goal of the defectors is twofold – to disorganise and create confusion in the APC and discredit President Muhammadu Buhari through sustained propaganda ahead of next year’s elections.

Yet, the alternative solution being canvassed by the defectors are unclear. They are not armed with superior ideological argument. Neither are they fighting for the masses. The combatants are scheming for more access to state power and resources. The welfare of the people is secondary.

The defection marked the trial of the Adams Oshiomhole leadership. Following the emergence of the former labour leader and governor of Edo State as national chairman, it was expected that he would deploy his persuasive talents and win back the hearts of the APC hardliners. Comrade Oshiomhole, it was said, swung into action. He was said to have made consultations and persuaded the aggrieved chieftains to sheathe their swords, but without success. But, as he proceeded with the peace moves, his utterances about the activities of the ‘Reformed APC,’ led by Buba Galadiama, were highly inflammatory. The chairman described the would-be defectors as inconsequential elements without a record of honour.

Full of bravado, a combative and fork-tongued Oshiomhole still trivialised the defection, shortly after it was announced. He likened some of the defectors to politicians who cannot win election on their own strength. He assured that the legitimate complaints of those who have genuine grievances beyond butter and bread, but have shunned the carrot of defection, would be favourably considered by the party.

For many party elders, it is a moment of sober reflection. Reality has dawned on them that APC could only brace for a difficult future. Gone were the euphoria and confidence of 2015. As some members are leaving the platform, gladiators from other parties are not coming to the party. While APC is not keeping its old friends, it is not making new friends. Thus, the party has to gird its loins as the country warms for next year’s general elections.

Following the shrinkage of the numerical strength in the Senate, the ruling party no longer enjoys a comfortable majority in the Upper Chamber. The retrogressive status change may worsen the executive/legislative relations in this quarter. The heart and body of the APC Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who is being projected by his supporters as the main issue in politics as at now, is in the PDP. His foot-soldiers are his advance party to the PDP. Having adjourned the Senate plenary till September, aggrieved defectors will have a sufficient to concentrate on their post-defection plots. Between now and then, the debate on the electioneering bill is put on hold.

In retrospect, the defection may not produce instant effect beyond the perceived alteration of the APC’s status in the parliament. Instructively, when the defectors were in the APC, they acted as opposition leaders. Their opposition to the presidency was hostile and intense than their PDP counterparts.

To observers, history may be repeating itself. In 2014, prominent PDP chieftains had left the party in droves to team up with the Buhari forces to abort the second term ambition of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who insisted on a second term in clear violation of the party’s zoning formula and in utter sensitivity to the popular and justifiable agitation by the North for power shift. The APC became a platform for strange bed fellows. The old and new members were not united by similarity of ideas. What was paramount in their minds was federal power. In post-2015 election period, no effort was made to embark on party reforms or erase the pre-election cleavages, which the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the nPDP and a faction of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) represented. There was no evolution of the party caucus. During the National Assembly leadership election when President Muhammadu Buhari was expected to seize the moment, he was somehow aloof because he did not foresee problem working with whoever emerged the leadership. He has said in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015 that belonged to nobody, but to everybody.

The second phase of the defection may coincide with the resumption of plenary by the Senate. It may be close to party nominations for general elections. The climax will be the defection of Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara. Unlike 2015, many governors may not defect. There may be no mass defection. Apart from Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal and his Benue counterpart, Samuel Ortom, who are still weighing the options, the APC Governors’ Forum is solidly behind the party and the president.

As the defectors retrace their steps to the PDP, there are some hurdles to cross. There is no position they were promised in the PDP which is not guaranteed for them in the APC, except the presidency. PDP leaders are excited at the APC’s misfortune. But, not all of them are ready to yield their space for the ‘new comers.’ In Benue State, governorship aspirants on the platform of the PDP have warned Ortom against returning to the party.

How far will the defection affect the fortune of the APC? There are indications that Kwara State is back as a PDP stronghold. This is due to the Saraki factor. Owing to his popularity and his support base, the state will gravitate towards the PDP in next year’s election. The implication is that Saraki and the other two senators in the Northcentral state will retain their seats in the Upper Chamber, if they are fielded as candidates of the PDP.

Also, in Benue State, the defection of Senator Barnabas Gemade, who represents Benue Northeast, is a major blow. If Gemade and Senator David Mark (Benue South) combine forces, the efforts of Senator George Akume (Northwest) may not be enough to retain the state for the APC in next year’s poll.

It may be a different ball game in Kogi State. Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West), who has returned to the PDP, may have to jostle a ticket for re-election with a member of the House of Representatives who have shown interest in the senatorial slot under the PDP. But, if the tempo of support for President Buhari is sustained in the district, and Senator Smart Adeyemi, is fielded, it may be difficult for Melaye to retain the position.

July 25, 2018
Defections hit APC in Bayelsa

THOUSANDS of the All Progressives Congress (APC) members yesterday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Sagbama, the Local Government Area of Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson.

The defection occurred a day after the party held parallel congresses that produced factional executive committees.

Jonathan Amos leads the committee loyal to former Governor Timipre Sylva and the Minister of State for Agriculture Heineken Lokpobiri. A faction led by former Acting Governor Nestor Binabo and Preye Aganaba elected Joseph Fafi as its chairman.

Incensed by the development, APC faithful in Sagbama were said to have burnt their brooms and flags to return to PDP, their former party.

The defectors were received by the state PDP Secretary, Mr. Godspower Keku; Sagbama Chairman of the party, Ebeleakpo Alale; Caretaker Committee Chairman Michael Magbisa and state lawmakers, including Kenneth Kenebai and other leaders.

Speaking through their leaders, the defectors, who came from various wards, claimed that they returned to the PDP because the APC was “confused, lacked focus and had no clear-cut agenda in the state”.

Keku said many of them were deceived into joining the APC but later realised that the party lacked ideas and decided to rejoin the PDP.

He promised the returnees a level-playing field in PDP, adding that they would not be treated as new members.

He said the performance of Dickson and his leadership style would keep bringing people back to the party.

Also speaking, Kenabai, who referred to the defectors as returnees, said that they were highly welcome back to the PDP.

He said their coming was an indication that where they initially went did not favour them adding that Bayelsa was a PDP state.

May 21, 2018
Unease in Akwa Ibom PDP over defections

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Akwa-Ibom State are making new moves to save party from continuous defection of its members to All Progressive Congress (APC), reports Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu

For the first time in over 16 years, Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is facing what some observers described as ‘its biggest threat ever,’ following the continuous defection of its members to the All Progressive Congress (APC). Concerned members, who commented on the development, said the leaders must do something fast if the umbrella wants to survive the threat of the broom in the traditional PDP state.

The development, which started shortly before the last governorship election in the state, assumed an embarrassing dimension last weekend when over 100 members in Governor Udom Emmanuel’s Eket Federal Constituency, including members said to be close to the governor and former top officials on the platform of the party, defected from PDP to APC. As a result, according to an associate of former State Governor, and now Senator Godwin Akpabio, the party leadership, at the behest of Akpabio and Governor Emmanuel Udom, has advised all ward leaders to look inwards with a view to resolve internal wrangling that may lead to further defections.

The Nation investigation shows that PDP leaders in the state, especially former Governor Akpabio and Governor Emmanuel Udom, are not taking kindly to the development as they have sworn to reverse the trend and retain power in the South-South state.

For example, when on January 19, 2017, Senator Nelson Effiong, who represents Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District, announced his defection to APC from PDP, Akpabio, who, as the Senate Minority Leader, has been leading PDP’s counter attack against defection of PDP lawmakers nationwide, was particularly angered. Expressing deep regrets over the development, he declared resolve of his party to reclaim the seat.

“I understand, maybe, due to political intoxication or otherwise, the senator has jumped ship and moved from this side to the other side. I need to let the Senate and the President know that in terms of the court decisions up to the Supreme Court, that it is not an individual who contests an election.

“It is a political party and, therefore, the moment somebody takes the mandate of a political party, it behooves on that political party to immediately take steps.

“We heard that this action was going to take place and we engaged the senator in various discussions and we showed him the implication.

“We must reclaim the mandate given to us and we do not mind the senator joining the APC, but, he will not go with the mandate given to us in Akwa Ibom State,” he said at the floor of the Red Chamber.

While announcing his defection at the plenary, Effiong had blamed “intractable crisis in the PDP” for his decision, adding that “no politician worth his onions should remain in the PDP.”

Since then, the battle to stop further defections has been intense as PDP leaders dish out marching orders to the party’s field men and APC continuous its bumper harvests.

Fallout of election disagreements

The Nation investigation shows that the current gale of defection from the PDP to the APC may be traced to the pre and post-election disagreements in the state and the way they were handled by PDP leaders.

It would be recalled that the first blow PDP suffered shortly after the governorship election, was when APC approached the tribunal to challenge the election which brought in Emmanuel as governor of the state. PDP was rattled when after weeks of legal battle; the tribunal nullified the election in 18, out of the 31 local government areas of the state.

At the appellate court, APC had demanded that elections in the entire state be nullified but the PDP queried the initial cancellation of election in 18 LGA’s by the tribunal and urged the upper court to set aside the election and declare its candidate, Udom Emmanuel, as governor.

The final court’s rulings notwithstanding, our investigation shows that most of the former PDP members, who defected to APC in the state alleged that they lost confidence in the ruling party in the state because of the way the leaders in the state bulldozed their way to victory, enthroning their chosen ones without giving any thought to the sensibilities of the common PDP faithful that have labored for years to nurture the party at the grassroots.

Dr. Wilfred Ekon, a youth’s activist in Ikot-Ekpene, who confirmed fresh moves to save PDP in the state, told The Nation that the party is reaping the seeds its leaders sowed in 2015. “We have been monitoring the utterances and actions of PDP leaders to the gale of defections to APC here in Akwa Ibom. If you look at it, either as a youth or as a progressively minded PDP member, it is really laughable. The leader, former Governor Akpabio, for example, threatened to reclaim Senator Nelson Effiong’s seat at the Senate, alleging that the mandate of the Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District was given to PDP and not to Effiong as a person. The question is which mandate? If indeed the people’s mandate was given to PDP and the PDP remains the same PDP we all loved and supported with so much passion and trust, then, nobody should lose a sleep over anybody’s defection. But we all saw what happened here in 2015. What they are parading as PDP mandate was stolen mandate. It was part of the confusion caused by imposition and other dictatorial practices of our leaders in the state. Is that not why they are still fighting amongst themselves in the case between Hon Bassey Etim and Senator Bassey Albert, both PDP candidates, laying claims to Uyo Senatorial District’s seat? Our people know and love PDP, but so much went wrong in 2015 and the leaders have not done enough to make amends. Until they wake up to realities, many more members will defect to APC here in Akwa Ibom.”

Crisis in PDP

Although most state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party have recently blamed the party’s national leadership crisis for their current challenges, insiders said Akwa Ibom’s case transcends the national crisis. For the party, which has ruled the South-South state for the past 16 years, the defection of prominent members with their supporters has become a major source of concern, especially as insiders confirm disaffection at the grassroots. Already, accusing fingers are being raised as most defectors accuse the leadership in the state of being responsible for their loss of confidence in the party.

In fact, the party’s crisis in the state actually commenced shortly after the governorship and state assembly elections, as they were trailed by widespread condemnations.

Even official observers, both local and international, had said the elections were not credible due to wide spread violence and electoral malpractices.

Explaining the root causes of the crisis in Akwa Ibom politics, Ekon said on Friday, “the controversial circumstances surrounding the emergence of both Obong Umana Okon Umana of APC and Governor Udom Emmanuel of PDP as the candidates of the two leading political parties were at the root of what we are seeing today. Remember that two of them were former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) in Governor Godswill Akpabio’s administration and so you will understand the rivalries. Also, while Umana had to defect to APC a few days to the party’s primaries and as aresult had to ‘dislodge’ Senator John James Akpanudoedehe, who was favoured to pick the ticket then, at least, 22 PDP governorship aspirants openly protested the emergence of Emmanuel as the PDP standard bearer. They went to the extent of petitioning the party’s hierarchy to overturn the exercise. All these will explain to us why the political theatre in Akwa Ibom has remained tensed ever since then. I think the leaders must make specific efforts to resolve the thorny issues that arose from that 2015 pre-election maneuvers and the resultant election violence. Until this is done, the political scene will remain hot and more critical defections would be recorded before the next elections.”

Campaign to exit opposition

Although Akpabio, as the Minority Leader at the Senate, has remained firm outspoken in his defence of the opposition party, PDP, one of the main factors that have aided the gale of defections to APC in his state is massive campaign of APC leaders in the state for the people to exit opposition and join the ruling party at the centre.

Ironically, this campaign has been more audible and seemingly more effective in Eket and Ikot-Ekpene areas, where Governor Emmanuel and Akpabio hail from. Just last week, when over 100 former PDP members from Eket area defected to APC it was reported that the mood of people at the Nsima Ekere Campaign Centre, venue of the rally, was so high that the event was turned into a carnival.

The centre was filled to capacity, with many people hanging outside the arena to catch a glimpse of the defectors, who included former chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Otu Ita Toyo, who hails from the same senatorial district as the governor, Udom Emmanuel; former senators, among them, Aloysius Etok, Helen Esuene; former members of the House of Representatives, including Esime Eyibo, former commissioners, local government chairmen, among others.

It would be recalled that apart from these latest defections, many PDP chieftains in the state have defected to the APC since 2015. The big names from the state that have defected from PDP to APC since then include Chief Don Etiebet, former member, PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Edet Nkpubre, former National Vice Chairman (PDP South-South Zone) Otuekong Aniete Ekong, former PDP State Secretary, Robinson Uwak, former member House of Representatives, Eket, Obong Nsima Ekere, former Minister, Rita Akpan, former Deputy Governor and Leader of G22 Eket, Crysantus Ette, former member, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Eket Emmanuel Inwang, former member Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Eket, Engr. Iroigak Ikann, former Commissioner for Land and Housing, Dr. Effiong Edunam, former Commissioner for Education.

Commenting on the development, Evangelist Jonathan Udoma, who described himself as a PDP supporter said, “It should be instructive to PDP leaders today that the highest number of high profile defections currently recorded are from Eket and Ikot-Ekpene senatorial zones, where the governor, Udom Emmanuel and former governor Godswill Akpabio, hail from.

“Add this to the fact that about 13 former LG chairmen and several lawmakers from Ekot-Ekpene Senatorial District alone have defected to the APC, and you will agree with me that we have so much work to do in Akwa Ibom PDP. I am happy to confirm to you that the leaders are aware and have commenced moves at the ward level to save the situation. This weekend, I am aware that one of such crucial meetings has been scheduled in my ward. I think it is the same across the state,” he said.

March 19, 2017