37,874 Opposition Party Members In Akwa Ibom Switch To PDP
Umo Eno, the state's governor, admitted 37,874 members of opposition political parties from Akwa Ibom State into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday, March 23.
Upon welcoming the returnees, who had previously belonged to various political parties such as the Social Democratic Party (SDP), New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP), Young Progressives Party (YPP), and All Progressives Congress (APC), Eno warned them not to show disrespect towards leaders, particularly those in the center.
Governor Eno stated: “We welcome you sincerely into our party, The PDP is not a party that insults leaders, as you come back, one of the things I want you to drop is an attack on leaders. For example, the President of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We have to show him optimum respect and support.
“The PDP I run doesn't attack leaders. We have to support leaders and not fight them because as a pastor, I am trained to respect people. We must show the character of humility, compassion, and respect to constituted authorities. That we will continue to do as a party.”
He insisted that they dismantle whatever previous structures they controlled in favor of the PDP structure in order to demonstrate their seriousness and sincerity of intent, saying that development and progress can only flourish in an environment of love, peace, and togetherness.
Eno assured the returnees that because the PDP is big enough to include everyone in the state, they will have equal opportunities to serve in both the party and the state.
“If we truly love our state, if we truly love the people, let us realise that we have no other than Akwa Ibom and we need to work together as a people irrespective of ethnic affection.
“Thank you for coming to this realisation, we receive you today because we are one, we come from one stock, thank you for understanding that it is only in the atmosphere of peace and unity that there can be progress. We have accepted you wholeheartedly, without segregation. We have spoken to the leadership of all the units, wards, and local government areas to receive and work with you for the growth of the PDP,” he maintained.
Aniekan Akpan, the state PDP chairman, had earlier called the reception rally the mother of all rallies in the state, second only to what happened in December 2022 during his welcome speech.
Akpan promised the returnees, the majority of whom were once PDP leaders, a full reintegration into the party.
Asserting that, as former PDP leaders, their actions amounted to an expression of confidence in the accomplishments of Umo Eno's administration in just nine months, the state chairman made this commitment while presenting them to the governor and the people of the state.
He mentioned that all of the returnees' data was compiled and could be viewed to demonstrate the accuracy of the figures from each of their original units, wards, and local government regions.
“On the order of the governor, we collated the data of all those that wanted to defect to the PDP from other parties.
“Following what we did jointly with the political Adviser to the governor, Prince Godwin Ntukude Ph., we have a record of over 37,000 members of other political parties who indicated interest to return to the PDP today,” Akpan explained.
Leaders of other parties, including Emmanuel Uko Etteh of the YPP and Nkereuwem Enyong Ekere, the former secretary of the APC in the state, spoke on behalf of the returnees and emphasized their real willingness to dismantle all of their structures and collaborate with the PDP.
However, in barely nine months of taking office, the governor received praise from them for making such a large investment in agriculture and other life-changing initiatives.
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