Chief Samingo Etukakpan, a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom state, has decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with his followers.
According to Etukakpan, he has been an elder of the PDP since 1998 and was a secretary of Eket chapter of Elders’ Forum of the party, but in all of his years at PDP, he did everything humanly possible to re-direct the party to its original ideology of internal democracy but to no avail.
PDP founding member, others decamp to APC in Akwa Ibom
Speaking at an event which took place at the APC Secretariat along Oron Road in Eket, Etukakpan from Ward 4 Urban Eket, said he was sick of battling to save the PDP he co-founded when it was obvious that the former ruling party was sinking, This Day reports.
He said: “I have worked for the party for the past 18 years without any dividend of democracy for myself and my followers, of over 500 of them who you can now see are here.
“They are decamping to the APC with my support because they too have realised that PDP has failed them and as expected, they cannot remain in such a failed party where impunity and selfishness reign supreme.”
Etukakpan said he has contributed in no small measure to the growth of PDP in the state, revealing that the party was hijacked some years back by “hawks” who knew nothing about democracy but impunity.
He also pledged to work for the growth of APC in the state to keep its ideology and ensure all his supporters of over 5,000 decamped to APC in order to assist the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari revamp the economy.
Chief Etukakpan's defection comes just ten days after a former minister of transport, Abdullahi Idris defected to APC.
Idris defected alongside a former deputy governor of the state, Lazerus Yoriyo, ex-House of Representative member, Saidu Alkali, and a former PDP youth leader, Habu Mu’azu.
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