A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State and one-time Military Governor of Gombe State, Group Captain Joe Orji (Retd) at the weekend defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with scores of his supporters.
The development is coming less than a month former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, Chief Jim Nwobodo and immediate past Speaker of Enugu state House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh, among other notable politicians in the state dumped PDP for APC.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the formal registration of Chief Orji, at his Nenwe community, the Southeast national vice chairman of APC, Emma Enukwu, described the ex- Military governor as a “political caterpillar” who will join forces with other progressives and democrats in the state to wrest power from PDP in 2019.
Orji, a gubernatorial candidate on the platform of the defunct All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP) in the state, hails from the same local government area with the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
According to Enukwu, who spoke alongside state chairman of the party, Dr Ben Nwoye and South- East national publicity secretary, Hon Hycient Ngwu, noted that Orji’s decision to join the ruling party at the Centre was a wise one, calling on other political bigwigs in the state and south- east zone to emulate the retired Air force chief.
He said, “it is only by embracing the ruling party that Ndigbo could be part of the main stream in the nation’s body polity.”
Enukwu stated that Orji, due to his pedigree will automatically become a member of the state caucus of the party, adding that arrangement would soon be put in place to formally receive him by the national secretariat of the party.
In his remark, the State chairman of the party, Dr Nwoye, lauded the ex- military governor for his courage in identifying with the party of progressives.
According to him, “with the development, APC is now battle ready to send PDP packing from the Enugu government House come 2019. You can see that virtually all the politicians that made PDP thick in the past in all the three senatorial zone of the state have left the party to join us”
“This is the last call for those remaining, or that are yet to make up their minds, to rise up and register with the progressive party, because APC really means well for the Igbo nation” Nwoye stated.
Orji, in his speech, explained that he decided to leave the PDP because of the alarming rate of injustice and impunity in the party.
He expressed confidence in the ability of the president Muhammadu Buhari led federal government to tackle the present economic and political challenges confronting Nigeria, occasioned by bad governance of the last administration of PDP.
“My decision to join APC was taken after I critically studied the programme and policies of the party”, he concluded.
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