Oshiomhole’s ex-aide, others decamp to PDP

CITING the numerous unfulfilled promises made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the heat of the 2015 general elections, thousands of the ruling party supporters during the weekend in Edo state defected to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

They alleged that not even the offer of monetary inducement by top officials of the APC could stop them from quitting the party which they insisted has failed woefully.

The erstwhile APC members who spoke separately at three different locations were drawn from Oredo, Ikpoba Okha and Ovia North East local government areas.

The wind of defection which has lately been blowing through the state blew Mr Collins Osaghae, a former Senior Special Assistant to the APC, national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and two groups, Whiterose and Ailevbor made up of thousands of members.

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Speaking at Oredo party secretariat, Osaghae said that he joined the APC with so many expectations and gave his very best to the ruling party with the hope of a better Nigeria, only to find out that it lacked focus.

The ex-aide said in the last three and a half years since President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of government in the country, hunger and pauperisation of the common man is now the order of the day as a result of bad government policies.

He said: “I used to think that some people believed in democracy and were ready to play by the rule. I was offered a job and a huge amount of money at the last minute not to decamp but my mind was made up. This government has failed to deliver. The president said that Nigerians are corrupt but the government is corrupt.”

The story was the same as the small town of Odiguetue where, Mr Juliis Edobor, another defector who led several others said that he too was offered cash to stay but he was hell-bent on moving because the only legacy of the APC led government is hunger and starvation.

At the events which witnessed the presence of the Chairman Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (Edo South), Ms Omosede Igbinedion and other party bigwigs, the state party Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih called on the defectors to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and vote out the inept APC government in the 2019 general elections.