From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The re-election bid of Governor Douye Diri has received a major boost with members of the main opposition party , All Progressive Congress( APC) defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekeremor Local Government Area.
Those affected were APC members in Wards 2 and 3 in Constituency 1, and Ward 6 in Constituency 2.
Receiving the decampees on behalf Governor Douye Diri in Government House, Yenagoa, the Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said it was good and timely for them to retrace their steps back to the PDP political family in the state at a time the party was preparing for the 2023 governorship election.
Senator Diri remarked that elections in the past had been particularly tough for the PDP in Amabulu community in Ward 3, and expressed the hope that with their return to the PDP, victory was assured for the party in the area.
Diri commended the defectors for returning to the PDP, pointing out that the opposition APC in the state had no good plans for them, other than to use them perpetrate electoral violence and thereafter dump them in their usual style.
He assured the returnees that, apart from those recently appointed into the big eight councils and the 32 Rural Development Areas (RDAs), his dministration would roll out more appointments that would cut across its grassroots support base.
Governor Diri, who equally promised to carry out more projects in communities despite the closeness of the election, however, called on the defectors and Bayelsans to vote massively for the PDP in the forthcoming governorship election to sustain good governance.
Speaking earlier, the coordinator of the decampees, Chief Fedude Zimughan remarked that the PDP members who went to the APC in protest had returned to their party.
Chief Fedude Zimughan, who is staunch chieftain of the PDP in Ekeremor LGA, pointed out that they were returning under the aegis of “Unit to Unit Delivery for Senator Douye Diri and Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo”, prepared to deliver in the November 11 gubernatorial election.
In their separate remarks, the leaders of the defectors from the three political wards, Mr. Amasingha Sunday, Mr. Peres Money Oyadongha, Mr. Abeke Aditola, and Barrister Ofoni Solomon assured the Deputy Governor that they had returned to the PDP for serious business ahead of the governorship election.
They noted that they had no other choice than to cross over to PDP as they were not given any recognition by the leadership of the APC, stressing that their departure would end the opposition’s recruitment exercise in the area.
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