11 Edo PDP Chieftains Decamp To APC

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News, Nigeria 2015 Election Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

FROM IGNATIUS OKPARA, Benin City – The Edo state chapter of the peoples Democratic party, PDP has suffered a set back as ward chairman and eleven members of the executive council of the party defected to the All Progressives Congress APC.

African Examiner reports that the decampees were leaders of the party in Ukpato Ward, in Orhiomwon council Area of the state.

Receiving the defectors formally into the APC fold at the Government House, Governor Adams Oshiomhole posited that the quitting of the executives has further reduced and decimated the opposition PDP in the state.

His words: “Your journey is coming at a very strategic period. When the PDP postponed the elections.

“They wanted to buy time but as they buy time, they are losing people and as they lose people and they are losing more votes.

“I believe that God has a purpose for touching everybody’s heart who have joined the movement for change because people like you who live in the rural areas know much more than anyone else the pains of poverty, the pains of the failure of the Nigeria State.

“When we buy you a transformer, there is no light. When light comes, the fees the community is asked to pay is more than the entire income of the community. Other than what the state government is doing in Orhionmwon, there is no federal presence in the community.

“The Federal Government has spent 52% of our earnings on your behalf over the past 16 years and you cannot show one thing they have done. We haven’t fixed all the problems but we have shown that it is possible to begin to address the problems.

“This is why in Orhionmwon we are building schools besides the long road that we are doing from Ugoneki to Urhonigbe, also we have done roads in Igbanke and all the adjoining communities.

The governor said: “We are currently working on the road in Abudu and several others.

“We have also done several red roof schools in several communities, an industrial borehole at Iguododo that will supply water to all the environs just to say but a few. We haven’t fixed all the problems but every day we are doing something new, connecting the people through networks of roads from one community to another, supplying transformers even though they may not enjoy it because the federal government has not delivered power and that is why we say unless we fix the head, you will not enjoy the full benefit of it.”

Oshiomhole had assured the decampees of equal privileges in the party, stressing that they will not regret their actions and decision to join forces with the APC

In his remarks on behalf of others, leader of the defectors and Chairman, Ukpato Ward, Mr. Vincent Awekhor, hailed the leadership style of the Comrade Governor, saying the APC government in the state has really touched the lives of the people via its human oriented projects in all the nooks and crannies of the state.

Said the chairman: “We have watched political activities not only in the state but the federal and have concluded that Nigerians need a change and the change is coming from only one party which is the APC and because we do not want to be left behind”

“We have decided today to join the moving train that will bring the desired change to Nigeria. the decamped chairman declared.