Society Gists

Former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Timi Alaibe, two-time Commissioner for Information, Chief Nathan Egba, and other top members of the All Progressives Party (APC) yesterday formally defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State.

Other notable persons who defected with the politicians were Chief Rufus Abadi, and former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Gideon Ekeowei, who led many APC members from all the local government areas to the PDP in a colourful ceremony in Yenagoa.

A grand rally to receive the defectors by Governor Seriake Dickson, the South South Zonal Chairman of the Party, Chief Emmanuel Ogidi, the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Moses Cleopas and other top political figures in the state took place at the Peace Park, Yenagoa.

In his remarks, Dickson said that Alaibe and the other top APC chieftains were the politicians who gave him a tough fight in the hotly contested gubernatorial election in 2015.

He said that with the defection of the large number of APC chieftains to the ruling PDP in the state, the APC had become a ghost party, incapable of winning elections in Bayelsa.

He said: “From today, you have been automatically restored to your leadership positions, the positions you occupied before you left. I charge you all to return to base to play the leadership role that you all can and will play.

“Let me make it clear that firstly the PDP you are coming back to is unlike the party you left, it is a party of order, conscientious building, law and order and mutual respect.

“We are in opposition and a party in opposition cannot conduct itself in a divisive way. We need all of you to work as supporters and advisers. I take you as members of my advisory team, you are no longer adversaries. Drop the adversarial toga. It belongs to the other party.