PDP says defectors are disgruntled
Former Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Francis Okiye, yesterday, rejoined the All Progressives Congress (APC). He urged the electorate to support and vote for a candidate who is humane and not a businessperson in the state who is ready to make profit.
Okiye resigned his membership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on May 10, 2024, assuring that he would announce his next political move in the coming days.
The former Speaker, who spoke during a rally in Edo Central, said that about 2,500 people moved to APC in Esan West, Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan South East and Igueben. He said: “About 2,500 people from Labour Party (LP) and PDP joined the APC yesterday.
“Prior to today (Sunday), we had met, discussed and asked Governor Godwin Obaseki-led PDP government to address the issue of alienation, disillusionment, high-handedness and despotic tendencies.
“Nothing has been done to address the issue. So, we the “aborigines” of PDP have just given the Obaseki-led PDP a red card. “My movement to APC will help the party and I will be simple with my analysis.
“In a democracy, votes matter. So, my exit from the PDP is a minus to the party whether anybody likes to interpret otherwise. If they are Democrats, they will know that at least they have lost my vote not to talk of many others that moved with me to APC.”
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the PDP Campaign Council for the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, Matthew Iduoriyemkewen, said the defectors leaving the PDP in droves to other parties are not of importance as they do so for their selfish interests.
Iduoriyemkewen, who spoke in Benin City during a familiarisation visit to the leadership and members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, said the PDP is interested in persons of value, adding that those that are in the party are assets and that many people are still coming.
“Most of the people moving out of the PDP have become disgruntled, and they feel they must have it all. I don’t know who gave them that kind of entitlement that PDP is theirs and it must be theirs and that when they need anything in the party and they don’t get it, nobody else can get it, and that the roof must be brought down.”
“I can tell you that people that are assets in the party we do not allow them to leave. More so, those that we are bringing into the party are those that will add value to the party. You will start seeing them very soon.”Iduoriyemkewen, who said Edo needs persons with value and substance, stressed that his party candidates, Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie, are the rights persons to move the state to an enviable heights.
