About
5000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including two
former speakers of the Kogi State House of Assembly, and one time acting
governor of the state, Clarance Olafemi, have decamped to the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
Receiving the defectors, who
also left the party with there supporters at the Township Stadium in
Lokoja, the state capital, the National Chairman of the party, Chief
John Oyegun, said the occasion marked the beginning of the end of the
PDP as the ruling party in the state.
The
National Deputy Chairman of the party, Senator Lawal Shaba, who gave the
opening remarks, described the APC as an interventionist party, noting
that the party would work tirelessly in the next five months to salvage
Nigerians and emancipate the people of Kogi from the strangle hold of
the PDP.
Former governor of the state, Mr Abubakar Audu, who
received the defectors and there supporters, said the dice has been
cast, urging the people to stand firm in their quest to wrestle power
from the PDP in the state.
A former Head of State and two-time
ANPP presidential candidate, General Mohammadu Buhari (Rtd), while
addressing the crowd, urged party loyalists to obtain their permanent
voters card, without which he said they would not be allowed to vote.
Buhari
urged Nigerians not to vote for “treasury looters” saying that the
country under APC would be better and prosperous as the party was all
out for positive change.
Former Vice President Abubakar Atiku,
noted that power has to be wrestled from the PDP because teachers
salaries have not been paid in the last 10 months.
However the
Kogi State PDP Vice Chairman, Hon Mohammed Abdulrahaman, debunked the
allegation of non-performance, saying it is baseless and unverifiable.
He
told Channels Television that those who left the party, are doing so to
get positions in the APC but will return to PDP when they don’t get it.
He boasted that the PDP has the clout to win the forth coming
election, noting that there defection has no significant role to play in
the party.
He said the present administration under PDP has met over 70 per cent of the aspirations of the people.
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