Thousands of supporters of the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba SAN, from the six local government areas of the Central Senatorial District of Cross River state on Thursday afternoon stormed the Cross River State secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Calabar to announce their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
The defectors, who were led by the Director General of the Victor Ndoma Egba Campaign Organisation, Ernest Irek, include former local council chairmen, former members of the state House of Assembly, former councilors and thousands of other PDP members.
They arrived the secretariat of the party in a convoy of buses and cars before they were formally received by the embattled state chairman of the party, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani.
Addressing leaders and members of the APC at its state secretariat located at Okoi Arikpo Estate in Calabar, Irek said they opted to join the APC to add value to the party. Irek said they were not joining the APC to create friction, but to provide the necessary strong opposition to the PDP government in the state.
Irek, who was flanked by the immediate past chairman of Obubra local government council, Pastor Chris Obase and other top politicians from the district, said that in Cross River State where the PDP has the governor, controls the House of Assembly, has all the local council chairmen and Councillors, they have decided to join the APC to provide formidable opposition.
“We have forgotten about the party called PDP”, Irek said. Irek said many of them have been marginalized so much in the PDP to the extent that they were made to appear as if they were no longer part of the state.
Meanwhile, the Senate Leader in a chat with CrossRiverWatch refused to confirm or deny whether he was moving to the APC himself. He simply told CrossRiverWatch that “My supporters have a right to associate with whoever they choose to associate with and if they decide to decamp to APC, that is it.”
A source close to the Senate Leader, who did not want to be named, however told CrossRiverWatch that the movement of the Senate Leader’s supporters is a prelude to his own defection. “The Senate Leader has to complete his tenure as the Leader of the Senate on the platform of the PDP to avoid the controversy in the nature that surrounded the defection of Tambuwal. It will be more auspicious for him to announce his own defection personally after May 29, when the new Senate will be inaugurated. But I can tell you that he has cross carpeted from the PDP to APC.” The source said.
It will be recalled that the Senate Leader fought a futile battle within the party to return for a record fourth time to the Senate but was frustrated by the long time friend and outgoing governor, Senator Liyel Imoke who preferred Hon. Owan Enoh who will be moving from the House of Representatives to take over from Ndoma Egba as Senator for Cross River Central.
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