Ebonyi PDP Says Ex-Senate President Anyim’s Defection To APC Is His Choice

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Monday, July 15th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Leadership of the main opposition party in Ebonyi state, South East Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said it is committed towards reclaiming the state from the ruling All progressive Congress APC, insisting that the state remains for the PDP.

To achieve that, it said the party is working seriously towards resolving the internal crisis currently bedeviling the party in the state.

Our correspondent writes PDP in the State has been engulfed in a serious crisis which may have affected its chances during the last general election in 2023.

Shortly after the 2023 polls, several stalwarts of the party decamped to the ruling APC, a situation that led to the appointment of a caretaker committee to pilot is affairs in the state by the National Working Committee, NWC in Abuja.

Just recently, this July to be precise, the crisis aggravated as a former governorship aspirant, Christian Usulor left the party.

The ex-House of Assembly member, accused the national leadership of the party of worsening the crisis by appointing “known members of other political parties into the state caretaker committee”.

But the state caretaker committee Chairman of the party, Barrister Steve Oruruo, while speaking with newsmen in Enugu said that the PDP remains the foundation upon which other parties sprung up, both nationally and in Ebonyi State, hence it cannot be allowed to go down now.

Oruruo, who spoke during a stakeholders engagement with members of the party In Enugu, noted that the crisis currently being witnessed in the party was not alien in the political system, adding that all will be resolved and the party will bounce back again.

“The era of discord and restiveness has come to an end, there is a rebirth of the PDP in Ebonyi state,” he said. “We must be united to succeed because every member is indispensable,”.

He maintained that Ebonyi belongs to the PDP because the party remains the only one that completely understands the sensibilities and temperament of the people.

“We remain committed to servicing them better, but we must be united,” he said. “Some people want to come back to the party and we must get it ready for them and the national body has done everything they need to do to ensure that the party bounces back,”.

According to him, “those who are defecting to the APC will be back to the party at the appropriate time, we are building bridges instead of building walls,”.

“From my perspective, it was a very successful meeting. We were able to bring the elders and leaders of the party to the table.

“For a while, there has been a kind of a fuss. For the fact that they came together is also a victory on the surface. Beyond that, they were able to embellish their point, speak from different points of opinion because I’m an entity of plurality of opinion.

“So, it was nice that they aired their views and we were able to reconcile their points and bring it together and also set the tone for the next outing- the Congress of the party.

“We the state leadership has been taken over and we know that there are chains of problems and multi failure crises within the rank and file of the party but we’re equal to the task, we’ve been containing the problem with constant and sustained advocacy because we prefer peace, building bridges instead of building walls.

“So, with that, continuous prayer and working together, I think the pains in the party will be healed.

Reacting to the official defection of former Senate president Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to the APC, Oruruo said

“Senator Anyim Pius Anyim has written the party many months ago, indicating that he has resigned from the party, so, this celebration is just an act of establishing the fact that he has made a choice in terms of the party to serve. So joining APC is very normal.

“Our part is the biggest party in West Africa and Africa as a whole and the only party that begot every political gladiator in Ebonyi State. The party is open, the umbrella so large and those who have defected, at the appropriate time they’ll be back” the Chairman stated.