Timi Alaibe, former chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has formally joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the governorship election in Bayelsa.
Sam Inokoba, Bayelsa state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, also joined APC along with an estimated 1000 other members.
Bayelsa is the home of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
At a public ceremony at Samson Siasia Sports Complex in Yenegoa, the PDP stalwarts announced their defection to the APC.
“This is common sense revolution. It is not change for the sake of it. We are changing from poverty to prosperity. We are changing from lies and deceit. We are changing from ‘Wayo’,” Alaibe, one of the leaders of the PDP in Bayelsa, said.
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“A state as rich as Bayelsa cannot tolerate poverty. It is not our portion to be in poverty. How can one provide oil and gas and not benefit from it? Change has come to Bayelsa.”
Receiving the defectors, John Oyegun, national chairman of the APC, who led members of the party’s national working committee to the event, said: “This is the first time a party is totally decapitated. The chairman of the PDP who represents the head of the party has left and the PDP is now headless. Anybody that is headless cannot survive.”
“We now have former deputy governors, former National Assembly members, former commissioners, former this and former that. Who is left in the PDP? Nobody. The people in Bayelsa is making history for the south south zone.”
Other PDP leaders in Bayelsa state who joined the APC are Heineken Lokpobiri (senator) former acting governors; Werinipre Sebarugu and Nestor Binabo; John Brambraifa (senator), Andrew Oputa (Maj rtd), Christopher Milky, Alex Ekiotene, Christopher Enai, Stella Dorgu and Mathew Karimu.
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