The member representing Abakaliki North Constituency under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon. Victor Chidi Nwoke, on Monday, defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The lawmaker, who defected during the inauguration of the local Government Committee of BERWO, the Pet Project of the wife of the Governor, cited lingering and irreconcilable crises rocking the PDP both at the state and the national level.
The legislator said he decided to join APC due to the achievements and leadership prowess of the state Governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru which centred on the People’s Charter of Needs.
“The crisis between the former Vice President of Nigeria and the party’s Presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the immediate past Governor of Rivers State and current minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike is causing a lot of disquiet within the party.
“The party has seriously been engulfed in leadership crisis to the extent that it has polarised the party into fierce contending groups, in addition to failed attempts to upstage the National Chairman who is believed to be a stooge of the minister of FCT.
“The leadership struggle between wike and Atiku has witnessed an unprecedented loss of members to other political parties even as it grapples with its own micro crisis.
“Moreso, due to the leadership prowess of the Governor of Ebonyi State, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, which is centered on the People’s Charter of Needs, the Governor of Ebonyi State is a paradigm of perfection,” he said.
The lawmaker defected with the Labour Party Chairman, Abakaliki LGA, Mr Innocent Oriji, who is one of his hardcore supporters.
Other defectors include the former leader Abakaliki legislative council, Hon. Emmanuel Nwandegu and over thousands of his teeming supporters.
The state chairman of APC, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, who welcomed the lawmaker and his supporters into the party, said that the lawmaker had finally arrived in the home he rightly belonged.
Emegha assured the lawmaker of a level playing ground and promised that he will be carried along in the scheme of things.
The wife of the governor of the State, Mrs Mary-Maudline Uzoamaka Nwifuru, welcomed the Honourable Member and his supporters on behalf of the governor of the State and assured him and his supporters of total inclusiveness.