Ex-Senate President, Nnamani, Nwodo, Others Join APC in Enugu

• We’ve dismantled PDP’s rigging machines    
• Ndigbo, strategic to APC survival says Nwobodo

By Christopher Isiguzo in Enugu

Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, yesterday formally joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) as he took part in the party’s registration exercise, describing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as one without a future.

Also, the wife of the former National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo,  Mrs. Dorothy, and former Governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo, registered as members of the party.

THISDAY check also showed that hundreds of PDP members in the state are defecting to the APC, declaring that the PDP would soon be consigned “to the dustbin of history.”

This is coming as the state Chairman of APC, Dr. Ben Nwoye, disclosed that his party has dismantled all the alleged rigging machines of the PDP in the state, vowing that nothing will stop it from wrestling power from the party during the 2019 general election.

Nwoye who spoke at the end of its stakeholders’ meeting with officials of the party’s national committee on the ongoing members re-registration exercise held at the state secretariat Enugu, said PDP is now dead and buried in the area.

He noted that with the influx of array of political bigwigs that had continued to dump the PDP for the APC in the three senatorial districts of the state, “it is now obvious and clear that it is all over for the PDP. It is now obvious and clear that nothing will stop the APC from taking over Enugu from the PDP in 2019.”

Speaking shortly after he was registered by the chairman of the party’s registration committee for the state, John Ibeabuchi, at his Amechi ward in Enugu South council, the former Senate president said he would still make a formal declaration at a public event, wherein he would give detailed reasons why he chose the APC.

“I recognise the weight of this moment. It’s a moment of joy for me to join those who have kept the APC flag flying. It will be foolhardy on my side to continue to identify with a group of persons who are returning from the market. APC is going to the market and shall bring back goodies. As long as God gives me strength, I will like to identify with potential winners.

“APC is not yet a perfect party, no party is, but it has the potential of becoming near perfect unlike others. I was not forced to join the party,; I did this out of my own volition. I went on sabbatical since February 6, 2016, when I left the PDP, but today, after taking a close look at the prevailing political situation, I have decided to join the APC.

“There’s change in the country and we need to identify with the change. The political map of the country has changed, we the Igbos cannot continue to distant ourselves and continue to cry, we need to come inside and become part of the change. The way the national stream is flowing, we need to be part and parcel of it.

“When somebody has a terminal disease, it will be foolish to advise the person’s family to continue to waste money trying to cure the disease, rather it will be better to ask the family to prepare for the person’s burial. We cannot continue to identify with a party that lacks internal democracy;  a party that has democratic in its name yet not democratic; a party without a future;  people should freely join the APC because the other road is closed, this is where the road is now,” he said.

He urged members of the party to be bold and mobilise people to join during the ongoing registration exercise vowing to defend the party publicly and privately.

“I’ll be APC in the day time and in the night. Those with excess baggage should not show their faces publicly. Those that have a lot of cases hanging on their neck should not show their faces, they can be our members but they have to stay behind, because the face of APC should be a face of purity,” he added, noting that he was ready to challenge anybody who feels uncomfortable with his decision to quit the PDP at any time.

On his part, Nwobodo who re-registered in the party, urged Nigerians to exercise patience with the Muhammadu Buhari’s  administration as all the challenges facing the country would not be addressed in one fell swoop.

He said his decision to defect to the APC was as a result of several factors, noting that he was one of the founders of PDP but had nothing to show for it. He said Ndigbo would be strategic for the future of APC in Nigeria.

The National Vice Chairman of the party in the South-east, Emma Eneukwu; the state Chairman of the party, Nwoye; Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu, and a former Secretary to the State Government, Onyemuche Nnamani, commended the former senate president for taking the bold step to join the APC.

Eneukwu specifically described Nnamani as a ‘big masquerade’ who would effectively provide the much needed leadership for Ndigbo in APC. He said notable political giants in the Southeast were now joining the APC, expressing hope that by the next election, the PDP would be finally buried in the zone.

Nwoye, on his part, said all the notable politicians and grassroots mobilizers that made PDP tick in the state in the past, such as Nwobodo, and Nnamani, from Enugu East district have all left the party for APC.

“Same has happened in Enugu west and North senatorial zones, where the likes of veteran politician, Gbazuagu Nweke Gbazuagu; immediate past Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eugene Odoh; former member of the House of Representatives, Uchenna Ekwe; wife of ex- governor and former National Chairman of the PDP, Mrs. Dorothy Nwodo, among others have pitched their tent with the ruling APC.