As the gale of defection continues to hit the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Amb Desmond Akawor, last Tuesday, received two set of decampees from the APC to the PDP.
While one group from Okrika Local Government led by the Chairman of the party in the area, Hon Fred Obah had returnees from Wards 2 and 5, including former Chairman of Okrika LGA, Hon Godwin Tamuno, and former Head of Primary Health Care in the state, Dr Claribel Abam; the other group led by the member representing PHALGA Constituency 2, Tonye Adoki, consisted of Wards and LGA executives from the constituency.
Receiving the groups at the state party secretariat in Port Harcourt, Akawor commended them for taking a wise decision to return to their original base, saying that coming at a transition time when they would contribute to the installation of a new government was not only apt but timely.
The PDP chairman, who told the returnees that there was no new member in the party, assured that henceforth they would be regarded as bona-fide members of the PDP.
“The decision you have taken is the right one because come 2023 nobody who is not PDP will enter Brick House, and I believe you have come back to join us to make the new government come into Brick House so that you will not be called a new person”, Akawor added.
He opined that the reason for joining politics which is to change their environment was not achieved in the APC, hence their decision to return to where the needs of the messes were being met.
The PDP chairman said a formal reception would be organised for them, and urged the leadership of the party in Okrika to fix a date for the ceremony.
Earlier, the member representing Port Harcourt Constituency 2 in the state House of Assembly, Hon Smart Adoki, had said the returnees who were in their hundreds, had the capacity to work for the success of the party in the area.
In his response, former Chairman of OkrikaLocal Government, Hon Godwin Tamuno, said he and other returnees had come to work for the victory of the PDP Governorship candidate, Sir SimFubara, bragging that by their defection to the PDP, there was no more APC in Okrika.
On her part, ClaribelAbam, who expressed joy over leaving the APC, said she would bring her wealth of experience to work in ensuring the success of the party in Okrika in every ramification.
Highpoint of the visit was the symbolic issuance of PDP membership cards to Godwin Tamuno and ClaribelAbam to signal their full readmission into the PDP family.
Other party executive officers present at the meeting were the Deputy Chairman, Hon Chukwuemeka Aaron; Secretary of the party, Dr Benibo George; Treasurer, Barrister Blessing Amadi; Publicity Secretary, Hon TambariGbara; and the Assistant Secretary 2, SuleAmakiri.
In a similar development, another set of decampees from PHALGA also returned to the PDP from APC, in Port Harcourt, last Wednesday.
The historic and colourful event, which took place at the Information Centre, Number 5Field in Port Harcourt City, was graced by some members of the state PDP Executive, including the state Chairman, Amb Desmond Akawor; the Deputy Chairman, Hon Chukwuemeka Aaron; the state Secretary, Dr Benibo George; and the state Treasurer and House of Reps candidate for Port Harcourt Constituency 1, Barrister Blessing Amadi.
Also on hand to receive the APC deserters were the party’s candidate for Rivers East Senatorial District, Chief AllwellOnyesoh; the House of Reps candidate for Port Harcourt Constituency 2, Hon ChimaBoms; the House of Assembly member and candidate for Port Harcourt Constituency 2, Hon Smart Adoki; the Chairman of PHALGA, Hon AllwellIhunda; the chairman of PDP in Port Harcourt City, among others.
Speaking while receiving the decampees, PDP Chairman, Amb Desmond Akawor, reiterated that there was no discrimination between old and new members in the PDP, contending that new members have equal status with their old counterparts.
The PDP chairman also assured them that nobody who has returned to the party had been left out in the scheme of things, stressing that everyone had been carried along.
Buttressing an instance of non-discrimination in the PDP, Akawor said one of their former party members, Chief AllwellOnyesoh, who left the APC sometime back, was today a senatorial candidate of the PDP.
While advising them to talk to those who were still undecided to take that bold and decisive step, he contended that broom which was the symbol of the APC was used in those days in the Diobu area and old Port Harcourt township by night soil men to pack faeces, noting that it was dishonourable for decent people to carry brooms up and down.
Akawor, who described their action as symbolic, urged them to get their PVCs ready to be able to use it to punish the APC at the polls in 2023.
Earlier, stakeholders of the party in the constituency, including Chief AllwellOnyesoh; Deputy Chairman of PDP, Hon Chukwuemeka Aaron; House of Representatives candidates for PHALGA Constituency 1 and 2, HonChimaBoms;state Treasurer and House of Reps candidate for Port Harcourt Constituency 1, Barrister Blessing Amadi; Mayor of Port Harcourt City, AllwellIhunda; House of Assembly candidate for Port Harcourt Constituency 2, Hon Smart Adoki; PDP chairman in the area, among others, welcomed the decampees, and enjoined them to be ready for the task ahead.
Speaking on behalf of the decampees, former APC State Organising Secretary, Mrs Gloria Nunju; former House of Assembly aspirant for PHALGA Constituency 2,Tonye Napoleon; and Sunday Okiri; affirmed their loyalty, commitment and readiness to work for PDP, pledging to use their PVCs to punish the APC for deceiving them.
They also expressed happiness to be back to the PDP, which they described as “home coming”.