Oreva Okolor Ben
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that he would never return to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying he has retired from partisan politics.
The ex-president, who renounced his membership of the party in 2015, stated this when he received the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu and other stakeholders who visited him on Saturday in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
According to reports, the visit was targeted at returning the former president to the opposition party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
But, Obasanjo, while addressing the stakeholders, said he had vowed to remain as a statesman. He, however, said PDP would always be part of his life.
In his words, “I’m no longer in partisan politics and there is nothing that can bring me back. Anybody who wants my advice will always be there in the best interest of Nigeria.
“Whatever I do in my own life…because I became president on the platform of PDP, PDP will continue to be part of my life.
Meanwhile, a former APC governorship candidate in the 2019 election in Yobe state, Dr. Aji Kolomi, and his supporters have defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Damaturu, the state capital.
Dr. Aji Kolomi and his supporters receive a warm welcome into PDP after resigning from APC.
This was confirmed in a statement by PDP’s Publicity Secretary in Yobe, Hon. Salihu Mohammed Baba who revealed that since the party has kicked off “Operation Flush APC In The State”, it has received over 1,000 APC loyalists into its fold.
He said the new entrants were mostly from Abasha, Layin PS, and Malaria areas within the metropolis.
Baba said: “As the operation continues steadily, we welcome the new entrants into our great party the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and urge our teeming youth to answer the clarion call by joining PDP for better Yobe and Nigeria.”
Similarly, some bigwigs of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Delta State have also defected to the Peoples Democratic party with their supporters.
The APC’s prominent key players that defected yesterday include Sylvester Imonina, Acting State Publicity Secretary, Precious Enuenweayoi, Acting State Welfare Secretary, and Cyril Ogodo, former Deputy Chairman in the state, Ben Onwuka, Sylvester Kohwo amongst others.
They had on Tuesday resigned their positions and membership from APC and formally joined PDP at the party’s mega rally in Asaba, Delta State on Saturday 22nd of January 2022.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, the “Ekweme” at the rally said it had made a statement across Nigeria that PDP is prepared to take over this nation, saying one good thing about those in the PDP is that members are one family.
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He warned aspiring brothers in the opposition parties not to waste their resources and time because there is no space for them in Delta State, we are in control just as he advised all aspirants to control their followers.
But in a sharp reaction, a founding leader of APC in the state and 2015 governorship candidate of the party, O’tega Emerhor, described the defectors as stomach politicians who had been financially induced to declare for the PDP, noting that the APC would not miss them.
However, the defectors who spoke separately at the PDP rally said they were happy in their new party, insisting that the opposition was dead in Delta State with their exit from APC.
Ogodo, leader of the defectors, in his remarks said: “We have come here to collapse APC in Delta. The hand we used in building APC is the same hand we now use to scatter it today,” he said.
