By Adesina Soyooye
The member representing Ideato North/ Ideato South Federal Constituency, Imo State, in the House of Representatives, Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the Action Peoples Party, APP.
Until he dumped the Party, Hon. Ugochinyere Imo was one of the most active and vocal voices in the PDP and one of those who gave the ruling party in the State hell.
He declared for the APP, a little known Party in the State, at his home town Akokwa, in the presence of thousands of his Constituents and officials of the APP. The ceremony was aired live on Arise Television. But even though APP is not quite known in the State, not a few people believe that the Lawmaker’s popularity in his Constituency and charisma and performance will see him through in the State which, for now, is clearly an APC State, 100 per cent, almost.
While declaring for the APP, he said the monster the PDP created has consumed it. There has been an unprecedented run in the Party which from the 13 Governors it had in 2023, now parades only a paltry four.
He pilloried the leadership of the PDP for the prolonged internal crisis which began since 2015, and worsened in 2022.
It is Ugochinyere’s opinion that those who watered the crisis are now being consumed by what it nurtured.
He described the PDP situation as self-inflicted. He recalled the obstacles he personally faced in the Party as soon as he was cleared to contest for the House of Representatives election.
“From the day we declared to contest under the PDP, we began to face problems, internal opposition and sabotage trailed mu ambition throughout the process.”
He criticised the party’s silence during the political crisis in Rivers State, and accused its leaders of failing to defend the party’s integrity at a critical moment.
He recalled how a prominent party member of the PDP from the South-east fully supported the actions that weakened the PDP for personal gain, and described it as a betrayal of the party.
He said: “Today, the monster you enabled is after all of you.
“As a lawyer and a defender of justice, should I join people who are directionless and only interested in accessing the vault of their state?” he asked. He was answered by a thunderous no!
“From the day we started with PDP to this afternoon, we are still in court with our party in a bid to retain the seat that for over fifteen years they never won until we brought victory to them. Now that we survived all these ordeals in the last three, four years, should we try it again? No. Should we test God to see whether we survive? Not to talk of the fact that some of them testified against us in tribunal, our own party men.
“I found it very insulting as the only federal lawmaker that the party has in the State. But they preferred that the party died while they washed dishes in Port Harcourt.
“We want to build. We want to earn every vote. And that’s why we took a political party that we want to build from scratch, filled with energy of young people, we went to a political party that didn’t have any governor so we can build because we are sure of what we want to do. It’s on that gound that I have decided to depart from the PDP”.
With his exit from the Party the PDP Imo now has zero presence in the House of Representatives.
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