Akwa Ibom APC records highest mass defection in years

No fewer than 20,000 former members of the APC from wards, units and chapters across 31 LGAs in Akwa Ibom have defected to the ruling PDP.

They were received into the PDP at a ceremony held in Uyo on Monday.

Gov.Udom Emmanuel commended the new members for joining the PDP which he described as the only grass roots party in the country.

The governor urged them to always stand in defence of the state.

“This is unprecedented in the history of our state,” he said.

“What you are doing today is not about me, it is not about the party chairman, or any other person. It is about the soul of Akwa Ibom State.”

He added that he was not losing sleep over the threat by the opposition to take over the state, a threat he said was coming from “empty vessels that make the loudest noise.”

Party chairman Paul Ekpo, in his comment, described the number of new members as unprecedented in the history of the PDP in the state.

“It has never happened in the history of Akwa Ibom State that people in their thousands and on their own would decide and say we should come and receive them into the Peoples Democratic Party,” said Ekpo.

PDP’s former Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio recently dumped the party for the APC. His decision has plunged the party into some crisis, especially his relationship with Udom whom the former governor helped into office.