Edith CHUKU
The FCT Minister, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has described the defection of the speaker and 15 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, from PDP to APC as unfortunate.
Despite being his loyalists, Wike said the speaker and the 15 other decampees did not inform him of their decision to leave the PDP before the announcement during the plenary.
He said they are free to leave the PDP, while assuring that his camp would continue to work with the remaining lawmakers still loyal to the party.
Wike who spoke on Friday while addressing journalists after inspecting the ongoing construction of an interchange bridge connecting Maitama, Gishiri, Jahi, and Gwarimpa in Abuja, blamed their defection on PDP’s internal crisis.
His words, “well, it’s unfortunate. I have always said that everybody has the right to make a choice. The party is fully factionalised. And the requirement of the Constitution is that when a party is factionalised, they are allowed to leave the party.
“You will see that it’s not everybody who has left. I believe 16 or 17 of them have left out of 27. We still have a good number, about 10, and we will continue to work together. They never told me, but they have a right.”
The former Rivers State Governor further stated that, “I’m still in the PDP. So those who have remained, we’ll continue to work together. And I have said to the party, put your house in order. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t put your house in order, it’s the party that will lose.
“And we still ask the party to work together to see how the remaining members will be a relevant opposition. But they chose not to. So for me, those who have left are free. But those who remain in the party, we will continue to work together.”
