PDP to aggrieved members: Don’t defect to APC

Senator Walid Jibrin, Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed to aggrieved members of the party not to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

According to the chairman, defection can not be the solution to their grievances.

He also pleaded with the aggrieved members and other groups to allow the party’s leadership address their grievances amicably.

This was contained in a statement he signed on Thursday in Abuja where he advised all contending interests to sheathe their swords.

This appeal was made by the chairman as a result of gale of defections to the ruling APC by aggrieved PDP members in recent times.

Yesterday, another PDP member in the House of Representatives, Sam Onuigbo announced his defection to the APC.

Also, another PDP member in the House of Representatives, Sam Onuigbo, yesterday announced his defection to the APC.

The defection was greeted with a standing ovation by APC members and former Abia State governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who was admitted into the chamber to witness the brief ceremony.

But the defection the lawmaker, who is one of the oldest members of the House, created an uproar from his former colleagues who insisted that the constitution had been breached and that Onuigbo’s seat should be declared vacant.

In a letter read on the floor of the House by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the Abia lawmaker said he was joining the APC due to the crisis and what he called a lack of internal democracy and outright impunity within the PDP.

Objecting to the defection and demanding that the seat be declared vacant, Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers) described Onuigbo’s action as a charade.

“If somebody writes to you, claiming he was leaving the party that sponsored him to this House because of a crisis, it is your responsibility to investigate before accepting his letter,” Bob told Gbajabiamila.

House Minority Leader Ndudi Elumelu, who said he was a proud member of the PDP, urged the House to invoke the provisions of Section 68 of the Constitution and declare Onuigbo’s seat vacant.

Deputy Minority Leader Toby Okechukwu said: “Onuigbo has taken a dangerous step as there was no crisis in the PDP, either in Abia state or at the national level.”