RIVERS State Deputy Governor, Tele Ikuru, has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He has also pledged his loyalty to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Reacting to the development, Governor Rotimi Amaechi said he received the news of Ikuru’s resignation from the APC and wished him all the best in his future political endeavours.
Ikuru, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt yesterday, explained that after carefully studying, interacting and analyzing the leadership of the APC, he came to the conclusion that APC is a party of anarchists who are clothed in robes of pretence and deceit.
Ikuru, who was deputy to former governor, Sir Celestine Omehia, was retained by Governor Chibuike Amaechi when the Supreme Court ousted Omehia in October 2007.
Sources told The Guardian that Ikuru may be received officially by the PDP during the party’s stakeholders’ meeting in Port Harcourt today.
The deputy governor claimed that the APC, which he joined in 2013 when Amaechi left the PDP, is a party that was founded on deception and propaganda.
“My dear people of Rivers State, we of this generation will not in good conscience expect forgiveness and compassion from our forbearers, posterity, and the spirit of our unborn generations if it is recorded in the annals of history that after 48 years of Rivers people supporting leaders from all other parts of this country with our votes and resources, we were the same that witch-hunted and hounded down the very first ever President from this region, granted us by providence. I wash my hands off this treachery,” said Ikuru.
The deputy governor who is cousin to the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, has therefore urged all his supporters to join all well meaning Nigerians to massively vote for President Jonathan in the presidential election and the party’s governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike.
The Guardian gathered that Governor Amaechi had called Ikuru on Saturday, but he was told that the deputy governor who had been having problem with the APC state chairman, was at his village in Andoni to finalize his movement from the APC to the PDP.
It was learnt that when Ikuru returned to Port Harcourt yesterday, he failed to see the governor who is said to be worried about his deputy’s defection.
Amaechi, in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Ibim Semenitai, however noted that the reasons adduced by Ikuru are shocking because he has consistently been the one driving political activities in his local council of Andoni and has been the second in command driving politics and governance in the state.
“On a personal note, Governor Amaechi has accorded Ikuru all the privileges and respect due the office of the deputy governor and has treated him with love as a friend and brother.
“Though the governor had hoped that the numerous rumours of Ikuru’s double-faced membership of the APC and open romance with the PDP were not true, he however appreciates the fact that every individual has a right to pursue his political dreams, as he deems most appropriate.
“It is however regrettable that Ikuru has chosen the dishonourable path of bare faced lies and name calling, rather than the more honourable path of simply retracing his steps to where he has always been,” the statement said.
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