|
Listen now
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Peoples Democratic Party on Tuesday blasted the All Progressives Congress over the defection of Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, accusing the ruling party of orchestrating the political crisis that pushed Fubara out of the PDP.
Reactions emerged from both the state and national levels of the opposition party, with leaders insisting that Fubara’s exit neither weakened the PDP nor altered its structure in Rivers State.
On Tuesday, Fubara officially announced his defection from the PDP to the APC.
Fubara joined Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno; Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, and his Bayelsa counterpart, Duoye Siri, all of whom defected from the opposition PDP.
With Fubara’s official declaration, all six states in the South-South – Edo, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Delta and Cross River – are governed by the APC.
Fubara, speaking during an emergency stakeholders meeting at the Government House, Port Harcourt, on Tuesday, said he left his former party for two reasons: first, that the main opposition party could not protect him, and second, that he is still being addressed as “His Excellency, the Governor,” rather than “former governor,” because of President Bola Tinubu.
At the meeting held 24 hours after visiting the Presidential villa, Abuja, Fubara said his defection was in the interest of the state.
The PDP described the Rivers situation as a testament to the dysfunctional nature of Nigeria’s democracy, where individuals are bigger and stronger than institutions and can use the apparatus of the Federal Government to obfuscate political life out of their opponents and bring them to their knees.”
The Tanimu Turaki-led National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, in a statement on Tuesday, warned that Nigeria’s democracy was in danger, stressing that the ruling party’s push toward a one-party system and shrinking of the political space posed a serious threat.
“Democracy is terribly threatened by acts of this kind, and all well-meaning people should unify in condemning this progressive decline of democratic norms.
“We reiterate to Nigerians and the global community that with the unrelenting disposition of the ruling party towards the attainment of a one-party state, and the constriction of the political space, democracy is under severe attack in Nigeria.
“Everyone must rise together to oppose this ignoble trip toward electoral authoritarianism,” he said
The party, however, expressed pity for Fubara for defecting to the APC, insisting that his political troubles were self-inflicted, having willingly taken the path that led to his current predicament.
Ememobong said the Rivers crisis exposed a broken democracy where powerful individuals overpowered institutions and used federal machinery to crush their opponents.
He hoped Fubara did not fall into Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim became attached to his oppressor.
“The National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has received the news of the formal defection of His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers State, from our party to the ruling party.
“This news, as pitiful as it is, is an exemplar of the old legal maxim, Volenti non fit injuria, meaning to one who is willing, no harm can be done.
“Everyone who has followed the developments that culminated in this uneventful defection will recall that the governor willingly travelled the path that took him to this destination. Having done so voluntarily, he cannot turn around and accuse our party, or any other person or group, of abandoning or not protecting him.
“Whilst a person who is at a crossroad of threats of existential proportion will most likely suffer from temporary amnesia caused by trauma, the governor should have nothing less than praise for our party, civil society organisations, and all Nigerians who freely stood up in his defence since this crisis started until he capitulated.
“It is our prayer that the governor should not suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, where a victim falls in love with his captor. In all, despite these, we pity the governor and wish him well.”
Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!
