National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State received a former senate leader, Chief Victor Ndoma-Egba, as well as a former governor of the state, Mr. Clement Ebri, and Senator Bassey Otu to the party.
Odigie-Oyegun, who received over 1,000 defectors mainly from the Peoples Democratic Party, at the Government Primary School in Atu, Calabar-South, said the party was ready to take over the leadership of the state in the next general elections.
Other notable personalities that defected included a former representative of Cross River State on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Paul Adah, an ex-PDP state chairman, Ambassador Soni Abang, a former governorship aspirant of the PDP, Mr. Goddy Jedy-Agba, a former Labour Party governorship candidate, Mr. Fidelis Ugbo, a PDP governorship aspirant in the last election, Mr. Francis Bullem, another candidate for the Progressives Peoples Alliance, Mr. Goddie Akpama, among others.
Odigie-Oyegun said the defection was a signal that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was moving in the right direction.
Etta said with the successful defection of the bigwigs, the PDP in Cross River State has become an empty party.
The Supreme Court had recently ruled in favour of governors, Nyesom Wike and Udom Emmanuel, who were the PDP candidates in the 2015 governorship elections in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states respectively.
According to him, contrary to insinuations that the party is finding it difficult to accept the apex court ruling, the party only desired to know what informed the judgement.
He, however, noted that the outcry over the ruling so far has been that of individual members and not the party.
He said, “The APC is not finding it difficult to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, all we are after is to know why the ruling in the first place. No one can question the decision of the Apex Court.”
