The Peoples Democratic Party in Ini local government area of Akwa Ibom State has suffered a crippling blow with the defection of the strongman of the politics of the area, Dr. Godwin Udo Udo, to the All Progressives Congress.
The chieftain, a long-standing political kingmaker, popularly called Mentor by Ini politicians, defected on Friday at a rally at Methodist School, Mbiabong Ikot Udofia, Ini, with thousands of supporters, including a serving local government supervisor, two chapter executive members, 56 ward executive members and six former councillors.
Udo’s defection came barely three months after the defection of the apex political leader of Ini, Obong Otu Robert Akpan, and the earlier defection of a former House of Representatives Member for Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency, Prof. Ini Udoka.
Udo said he defected to assist Obong Akpan, a former Chairman of the National Broadcasting Commission, to deliver the area to APC.
He said that with his defection, “God has answered the prayers of APC in Ini because I have never failed to deliver victory during elections and I will not fail this time.”
Receiving the defectors, Hon. Ini Okopido, the APC State Chairman, said with the number and quality of defectors, PDP was finished in Ini because there was no politician of substance left in the party.
Obong Nsima Ekere, the APC governorship candidate in the state, attributed the exodus from the PDP into the APC to the acknowledgement of the performance of the Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari by the people of the state and the rejection of the Udom Emmanue-led State Government.
Ekere said: “If the PDP State Government was performing, will people be leaving?
“There is nothing to show for three and a half years in Akwa Ibom State.”
Senator Godswill Akpabio, the immediate past Governor of the state, said it was all over for PDP, adding: “This is total collapse.
“I don’t like talking when it is all over.
“I don’t like to return to Egypt.
“I don’t want to see even a torn umbrella.
“It is torn.
“Go and bury it.”
Akpan said he left PDP because Ini had not benefitted for the three and half years of the government of Governor Emmanuel.
Hon Victor Udofia, the Member for Ikono State Constituency in the State House of Assembly, posited that with the massive defection, “PDP has lost the game” in Ini even before the election.
Itoro Efrene, the Ini APC chapter Chairman, said the Ini PDP, which he resigned from as chapter Secretary, has finally collapsed with the exit of Udo, whom he called “a big fish”/
Solidarity messages were also delivered by Edidiong Idiong, the APC House of Representatives candidate for Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency, and Nyah Isong, the House of Assembly candidate for Ini State Constituency.
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