Mass Exodus Hits Delta PDP As Members Defect in Droves

By Amos Igbebe
The cantankerous fortune of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta has, again, suffered another setback as over 2000 PDP faithful in the southern part of the state, weekend, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), thereby increasing the APC family in the oil rich Delta State.
This is another blow to the loud mouthed PDP family which has continued to claim dominance of the state since the emergence of true democracy in 1999. The PDP family has boasted of being the only party in the state, but with the growth of the APC and the continuous exodus of PDP faithful to APC, the PDP is likely to wane and give way to the APC in the state.
Though many political bigwigs are of the view that Delta is home of PDP but with the current defection of its strongmen in the Southern part of the state, there is the likelihood of the APC overriding PDP and winning over its major strongholds thereby posing a powerful opposition in the 2019 general elections.
The defectors dumped the PDP in a well-organized ceremony with over 4000 persons in Bomadi main town in the council area on Sunday. It was a ground breaking ceremony where the crème de la crème of the society was in attendance.
The defectors were received by a Chieftain of the party, Chief Paulinus Akpeki, former Chief of Staff to the erstwhile Governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The massive exodus of Deltans from the PDP to the APC may not be unconnected with the alleged threat of Akpeki to stand as stumbling block to PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
Akpeki was one of the power brokers of the PDP in the state, especially in Delta Central, home of the Urhobos, but defected to the All Progressives Congress following the party’s rise to power at the federal level, turning the PDP into the opposition party in the most populous African country.
Among the defectors was a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and former governorship candidate of the PDP in the 2007 general elections, Mr. Power Ziakede Aginighan, popularly known as PZ Aginighan.
Aginighan announced that he was dumping the PDP with his supporters as the PDP has disappointed the Ijaw nation in the state. He explained that in all the programmes of the party, his people were systematically sidelined in the execution of all the state projects.
“I’m quitting the PDP with my people because the party has failed to meet my expectation of a new lease of life particularly for my Ijaw people in Delta state. The Ijaw nation remains the goose that lays the proverbial golden eggs but with next –to-nothing to show for it in terms of dividends of democracy.
“I can no longer tolerate the suffocating disappointment after my membership of the PDP for over 11 years with the party at the helm of affairs both in the state and federal levels for 16 years, because the party ought to exist for the improvement of the lot of the generality of the people in the country but has failed.
“I joined the PDP with the expectation that the genuine yearnings of our people for better living conditions would be met. 11 years after, I have come to a painful conclusion that, there is no tangible improvement in the lot of our people. I therefore see no need remaining in the party which does not have a future plan for my people in Delta State”.