All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday hit home a rebound with the defection of Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ayade, who lost out at the recent state congress of the PDP, helped the APC to regain a foothold in the South-south, which had come under the full control of the main opposition party with the defection and reelection of Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, last year.

Until yesterday, the PDP controlled the six South-south states of Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Delta and Rivers.

APC leaders had made efforts to make inroads into the oil-rich region in the 2019 election with the defection of the PDP Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who led the ruling party’s charge but was roundly defeated.

Next, it made an audacious move for Bayelsa State in the off-season governorship election, winning a pyrrhic victory, which was overturned by the Supreme Court due to the ineligibility of its deputy governorship candidate.
But the PDP downplayed its loss, urging its members in the state to remain steadfast in spite of the governor’s defection.

Our party calls on all critical stakeholders and teeming members of our party in Cross Rivers State to immediately pull together and ensure that all structure of our party in the state remains intact,

it said in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan.

The party said it wished Ayade well in his new political sojourn as well as in his future endeavours.
The APC, however, congratulated Ayade for what it described as his wise and timely decision to leave a ‘dead’ PDP for

a living and thriving party APC.

The National Secretary of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee of APC, Senator John Akpanudoedehe, in a statement yesterday, said the total lack of internal democracy, which turned the PDP into a one-man show had caused frustration and alienated PDP governors and legislators from the party.

Akpanudoedehe commended Ayade’s decision to join forces with Buhari to build a better Nigeria as a member of the APC.

The Cross River State governor had after months of frustrations in the PDP elected to jump ship yesterday telling the APC governors who received him that he moved to put the state at the centre of national politics.

Ayade, who fell out with the PDP leadership after he lost control of the party structure to National Assembly members from the state attributed his decision to join APC to President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to developing the country, and the need to join hands with the president to build a better Nigeria.

The Chairman of the APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee and the Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, led a delegation of party bigwigs, including governors to Calabar to receive Ayade to the party.

Ayade announced his defection while hosting seven APC governors.

Besides Bunu, other governors were: Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Senator Hope Uzodimma of Imo State; Hon. Simon Lalong of Plateau State; Senator Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State; and Mr. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State.

Also present was the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva.

Before formally defecting to the APC, he had held a two-hour meeting with the APC delegation.

Others at the meeting were the state Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu; Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Eteng Jones; and members of the state House of Assembly, some National Assembly members, members of the Cross River State Executive Council, local government chairmen, councillors and some stakeholders, including Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.

Ayade said with his defection, Cross River State had become an APC state and urged all its supporters and followers to go to their respective wards and register with his new party.

He added that he caved in to pressure to join APC because of Buhari and the realisation that Cross River, which has been emasculated economically following the ceding of its oil wells to Akwa Ibom State, needed to be in sync with the party at the centre.

He said:

Having seen and known the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his commitment to this country, his nationalistic disposition and all the efforts he has made to bring Nigeria to where we are today, it is obvious that at this point, we needed to join hands with him to build a Nigeria that we can be proud of.

We need all governors to recognise that it is not the party that matters. It is character, it is honour, it is commitment to the vision of this great nation. We all need to work as a team ahead of the president by working towards building a prosperous country that the succession worries of 2023 will come without the fears and the worries the international community has for us.

I believe that if every one of us as governor joins hands with Mr. President, I think we can sit on the same dining table and fashion out a way to govern this country.

Buni expressed joy at Ayade’s defection.

He said:

I am here on behalf of the APC family to welcome His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Cross River State, formally to the APC. As from today, he is the leader of the party in the state.

A chieftain of the APC from the state and former Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, also welcomed Ayade to the party.

Ndoma-Egba, in a statement yesterday, described Ayade’s entry into the APC as a good development for the state.

He said:

As you join us in the progressives fold, my expectation is that your coming will enrich our internal democracy and I enjoin you to be consultative, inclusive, democratic, transparent and accountable because these are the hallmarks of the All Progressives Congress family.

I also expect that your presence in the APC will further strengthen the party and improve our electoral fortunes in Cross River State.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, described the defection of Ayade as liberation from the forces of retrogression.

Omo-Agege, who is also the leader of APC in the South-south geo-political zone, hailed Ayade for seeing the need to improve his people’s fortunes and further help cement national unity by bringing his state into the APC.

He said the governor had displayed uncommon courage in order to take Cross River State and the South-south out of the periphery to mainstream politics of the nation.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.