In a major setback for the opposition PDP, Chief Nwobodo, one of its former presidential aspirants, surprisingly declared his membership of the APC at the meeting in Enugu yesterday. Chief Okoro, a former PDP senator from Enugu State who served between 1999 and 2007, also stunned the APC by joining their ranks at the same meeting.
Things then got more intriguing later on in the day when Senator Uche Ekwunife, representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, also announced that she had defected to the APC. Inaugurated in June, 2015, Senator Ekwunife had her election nullified by Appeal Court in Enugu on December 6, 2015, on grounds of irregularities, with the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) ordered to conduct a fresh polls within 90 days.
Senator Ekwunife, who has begun campaigning for the fresh election is now likely to stand as an APC candidate. Announcing her defection in Awka, the Anambra State capital, Senator Ekwunife, said that her goodies for her people under the APC would soon be made public.
She said: "It’s better now for me to join the APC. Let the heat be there as I am already on campaigns for my return to the senate, to complete my contract with the people of Anambra Central District.”
Chief Nwobodo was recently named by embattled former national security adviser Col Sambo Dasuki as one of those who benefited from the multi-billion-naira arms fraud currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Subsequently, his defection was not well received by some members of the APC.
One APC member said: “These are Dasukigate fugitives and food-is-ready politicians. Are they not those who collected money from Dasuki and allocated 14,175 votes to Buhari as against over 500,000 votes they allocated to former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan?
“Is there no shame in the country again? They are shameless and the unfortunate thing is that they cannot win their wards and they will infect and contaminate the APC.”
In his declaration speech, however, Chief Nwobodo had harsh words for his old party, the PDP, blaming the party’s leadership for allowing five governors to leave for the APC in the run-up to the 2015 general elections. He added that he is joining the APC to move the people of Enugu State into the mainstream at the federal level.
Drawing from his experience as a governor, Chief Nwobodo said it was not good being in the opposition. He said members of the APC in Enugu State should not to be discouraged by the electoral losses they suffered in the state in the past.
“I had a problem being an opposition governor and I am not coming into APC because I want anything. I want our people to be reintegrated and have our own share of the federal government resources,” Chief Nwobodo said.
He recalled that while he was in PDP, his wife had always been an active member of the APC. At the meeting, the former governor denied any wrongdoing, saying that the N500m (£1.7m) released to him by Col Dasuki was meant for PDP leaders in the southeast to mobilise support for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.
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