Following the defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo from the All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party, 106 members of the Action Democratic Party have also defected to the PDP.
The ADP defectors were from Egor, Ovia South West and Ovia North East Local Government Areas of Edo State.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the defections came as Edo State gets set for a governorship election described by analysts as a two-horse race between the PDP and APC.
The governorship election is slated for September 19.
Oshodin Izedomwen, the Organising Secretary of the ADP in Edo State, who led the defectors, said on Tuesday in Benin that the defection was part of their belief in the capacity of the PDP.
He recalled that he was a founding member of the PDP and that he left the party because of some persons, whom he described as “strange bed fellows” who came to join it.
Izedomwen said the other defectors and himself had now returned to the PDP because the “strange bed fellows had since left the party.
“In politics, interest matters because it is always the driving force.”
Receiving the defectors, the Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, expressed delight with them.
He described the action of the new party members and their leader as a home coming.
Aziegbemi assured the defectors that they would be integrated into the PDP to contribute to the success of the party in the state.
On June 19, Obaseki defected from the APC to PDP, having been disqualified by the APC from contestinf for re-election on the platform of the party.
The governor subsequently clinched the gubernatorial ticket of the PDP on June 25, after three other aspirants stepped down for him.