Former PDP Senator Tears Party Apart After Defecting To APC

A former chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who recently defected to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has berated his former party.

Senator Aloysius Etok

Speaking to Vanguard in Uyo, on Thursday, January 14, former Senator, Aloysius Etok (Ikot Ekpene) revealed that the problem facing the PDP is impunity which is characterised by the leadership of the party.

He said it would take a long time for the party to bounce back to power following its disgraceful antecedent.

The former senator further hinted that it is the lawlessness and impunity in the party that is making many of its members abandon it and join other parties.

He took a swipe at the Akwa Ibom state chapter of the PDP for claiming that: “even if election was conducted one hundred times it will win all” saying the party failed to understand that times have changed.

“Impunity, lawlessness and arrogance; these things made them to move away from the people and became very far away from the people. How will you expect the North-East to vote for PDP realizing that the party people played pranks with their lives?

“Even as a senator, I feel the pains that I joined in approving the international loan of one billion dollars and the money was taken and shared among people. You can fool people sometimes but you cannot fool them all the time.

“If there is a rerun in Akwa Ibom the election will respect all the laws covering the election and will not be done in the usual way, So you cannot say who will actually win because for one, you must be able to get the people to come out,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Aniekan Umanah, in his response to the former senator, described those who decamped from the PDP to APC as “an assemblage of former-former” political spent forces who are no longer relevant in the scheme of things in the state.

“When Etok lost his bid for third term as a senator for Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district he never participated in anything again. It was clear that he had left the party even before now. So the defectors are an assemblage of people who are aggrieved either because they didn’t get third term or they didn’t get certain position” Umanah said.

Meanwhile, the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)  has reportedly shunned the controversial defection of Senator Uche Ekwunife from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC.

Also, those that recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Warri South local government area, Delta state have been placed on probation. The leadership of the APC in Warri South, said they were registered with slips (temporary cards of APC) and as such not yet confirmed members of the party.

Source: Naij.com