About 20,000 members of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party.
The APC members, who defected to the PDP on Monday, included units, wards and chapters’ officers from the 31 local government areas of the state.
They were received into the PDP by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel, at a ceremony held in Uyo, the state capital.
Emmanuel commended the move by the APC members, adding: “This is unprecedented in the history of our state.
“What you are doing today is not about me, it is not about the party chairman or any other person.
“It is about the soul of Akwa Ibom State.”
Emmanuel said he was not losing sleep over the threat by the opposition to take over the state.
He said the threats were being made “empty vessels that make the loudest noise.”
The state Chairman of the PDP, Paul Ekpo, described the number of new members as unprecedented in the history of the PDP in the state.
Ekpo said: “It has never happened in the history of Akwa Ibom State that people in their thousands and on their own would decide and say we should come and receive them into the Peoples Democratic Party.
“We have been preaching industrialisation, peace and stability and workability but little did we know that our preaching has touched the minds of so many people in the state.”