Alaibe defects to APC with PDP chairman

As the Peoples Democratic Party braces up for the defection of no fewer than 570 of its key members to the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa on Saturday (today), an association within the PDP in the state, called the Unity Group, has begged the aggrieved members to rethink their action.

Oyegun commended them for their “courage to dump the PDP and embrace change”.

Buhari has slammed the state of the country’s finances, claiming his predecessor had left Africa’s biggest economy deep in debt and the treasury “virtually empty”.

The APC national chairman declared, “Who is left in the PDP now?”

“APC is making history not only in Bayelsa but for the South-South political zone; I believe by December 5, we will have more progressive states in this zone”.

Other PDP leaders in Bayelsa state who joined the APC are Heineken Lokpobiri (senator) former acting governors; Werinipre Sebarugu and Nestor Binabo; John Brambraifa (senator), Andrew Oputa (Maj rtd), Christopher Milky, Alex Ekiotene, Christopher Enai, Stella Dorgu and Mathew Karimu.‎. “We are still advising them to come back because the umbrella is big enough to accommodate them”. The APC leaders in Bayelsa State are very loyal and fought gallantly against the false claim that ‘it is our own.’ When they overcame such false campaign, their eyes opened and they saw recklessness, under-performance, and failure.

Ordinary people have largely not benefited from the nation’s oil wealth, however, with much of the revenue lost to graft. A state as rich as Bayelsa can not tolerate poverty.

“The level of looting that went on in other sectors is better imagined, hence the need for all Nigerians to rally around the Buhari Administration to recover the loots, bring the looters to justice and to put in place measures to prevent such looting in the future”, it said.

Speaking earlier, Alaibe said the defection of notable members of PDP to APC showed that the needed change in the state had come. “The labour of our forefathers has been rubbished”. The creeks of Bayelsa has become impassable. “Instead of development, we have witnessed disrespect to the elders in the state”.

Tukur also blamed the PDP’s woes on lack of internal democracy, adding that certain people in the party did not want him to practise internal democracy that he was preaching.

The PDP which alleged that Buhari did not act, said this has resulted in what it termed “present crisis” in the commission, where it said more than 80% out of the statutory 13 members remain vacant, even as eleven states of the federation are also without Resident Electoral Commissioners.