Defectors to APC lack electoral value – PDP chair

AUGUST 17, 2015 : SIMON UTEBOR
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The acting Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa
State, Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiff, has lashed out at the party’s
defectors, describing them as politically irrelevant people who
lacked electoral value.
Dokubo-Spiff, who made this known in a statement in Yenagoa,
was apparently referring to the mass defection of some PDP
members to the All Progressives Congress at a mega rally held
at Samson Siasia Sports Complex in Yenagoa, on Saturday.
The suspended Chairman of Bayelsa PDP, Col. Sam Inokoba
(retd.), a former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development
Commission, Timi Alaibe, and Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, led
over 2,000 PDP supporters to the APC in the mass movement.
Other prominent leaders of the PDP who dumped the party were
former acting governors in the state: Chiefs Nestor Binabo and
Werenipre Seibarugu; former House of Representatives
members, Dr. Stella Dorgu and Nado Karibo; party stalwarts,
Jonathan Omu and Diekivie Ikiogha, among others.
In the defection, believed to be the “mother of all defections” in
former President Goodluck Jonathan’s state, the National
Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, a former
Governor of Ekiti State, Segun Oni, a former Governor of Bayelsa
State, Chief Timipre Sylva, APC chairman in the state, Chief
Tiwei Orunimighe, national party leaders as well as the State
Working Committee of the party were on hand to receive the
defectors at the reception venue.
But Dokubo-Spiff, while reacting to the mass defection, said it
was a huge disappointment and an embarrassment to the party
and the Ijaw nation that the members, having benefitted
immensely from the party that made them who they are today,
abandoned the party.
He said by their conduct, it had clearly shown that the defection
was largely driven by greed and aggrandisement.
According to him, the defectors are “yesterday’s men and
women” who no longer have electoral value and, as such, the
PDP would not miss them.”
He alleged that the defectors were politicians who sponsored
candidates against the PDP in the last state House of Assembly
election and worked with the opposition to betray both Jonathan
and the PDP at the last presidential election.
He added that the defecting politicians could not be regarded as
dependable nor should they be celebrated by the APC as political
assets, stressing that they were never at anytime with the PDP.
He stated, “Suffice it to say that no member of the PDP in the
state or any of the party’s organ was part of this charade called
a mega rally. The PDP in Bayelsa State is intact. All the
structures and organs of the party at all levels are fully intact.”
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