The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ini Ememobong, is of the opinion that Governor Siminilayi Fubara of Rivers State ‘has fallen in love with a captor’ following the latter’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Fubara announced his decision during a stakeholders’ meeting held at the Government House in Port Harcourt on Tuesday, joining several of his colleagues who had also switched to the APC earlier this year.

Recently, 17 members of the House of Assembly, loyal to former Governor Nyesom Wike and led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, announced their defection from the PDP to the APC, thereby altering the balance of power in the legislature.

Reacting in an interview on Channels Television, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Ememobong said Fubara’s defection to the APC is a case of one ‘falling in love with a captor’.

“During the preparation for the PDP convention, I remember that a journalist asked Governor Bala about what the party was doing. He clearly said that “we need to allow Governor Fubara because he has been through a lot and that they have been speaking. You can’t just throw other people under the bus because of your actions and inactions,” Ememobong said.

“If you read the statement that he released, while we sympathise with him and we know that this is a situation where Stockholm syndrome has happened, a captive has fallen in love with a captor.

“Fubara is unable to differentiate between where the real problem lies. We frown against that conscious amnesia where he picks and chooses where the blame should be.

“He knows where the origin and continuity of his problems are. When he went to court about the issue of defection, he knows all the truth about it and he should be able to say that. Again, that deflection by him begins to beg the question whether he is placing the blame where he should rightly be.”

The Kabiru Turaki-led PDP had earlier reacted to the defection of Fubara to the ruling APC, describing the move as a “self-inflicted injury” and a culmination of choices the governor “willingly embraced.”

In a statement issued Tuesday night by Ememobong, the PDP said Fubara’s exit merely affirmed the legal maxim volenti non fit injuria—”to one who is willing, no harm is done.”

According to the PDP, the governor’s political troubles and eventual departure were products of his own decisions.

“Everyone who has followed developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the Governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination,” the statement read.

“Having done so voluntarily, he cannot turn around and accuse our party or any person or group of failing to protect him.”

The party insisted that at every stage of the crisis that engulfed Rivers politics over the past year, civil society groups, democratic actors and Nigerians across political divides stood in Fubara’s defence until he “capitulated.”

It added that rather than blame others, the governor should acknowledge the support he enjoyed before choosing his new path.