The Akwa Ibom State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has debunked the rumour that the governor of the State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel was hatching plans to defect to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Publicity Secretary of PDP in the State, Borono Bassey in a statement issued to journalists in Uyo on Tuesday described the rumour as a product of ‘hallucinations’ from the opposition party in the State, APC.
He added that the defection rumour was a mere wish of APC members to have the governor as their member to see if his presence in the party could rescue them.
Bassey who emphasized that no PDP governor that had performed well in office would think of jumping ship urged Akwa Ibom people to discountenance the rumour.
The Publicity Secretary stated that the rumour was not only targeted at misleading Akwa Ibom People but to heat up the polity and cause unnecessary agitations.
The statement read thus, “Workers in the occasionally grinding rumour mill of our land have yet again hatched a fresh but very ludicrous narrative with the central thesis being the ridiculous claim that, His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State and Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Udom Emmanuel is toying with the idea of defecting to the rudderless All Progressives Congress, APC.
“As a party, we wish to affirm that His Excellency, Mr Udom Emmanuel, a leader with a towering record of integrity and performance, remains a very committed and dutiful leader of the Peoples Democratic Party in Akwa Ibom State.
“We submit that for a Governor whose support base across all strata of the Party is unshakeable as the famed rock of Gibraltar, we cannot conceive the faintest of reasons why Governor Emmanuel would contemplate any form of movement, even in thoughts from the PDP whose values and ideological leaning resonates with his total development and leadership agenda; let alone to a party like the APC, a party synonymous with retrogression.
“What is clear however from these rumours is that the APC who are the principal shareholders in this rumour mills are desirous of having the focused, Visionary and performing Chief Executive of Akwa Ibom State cross over to their sinking boat, perhaps in the hope that his arrival could be the salvation that has for so long eluded them.
“Our Party, the PDP does not have even the miniscule sympathy for the APC in this shattered dream as our Governor and leader of our party cannot in all good conscience, plunge our State into the impending retrogression that awaits any state that affiliates directly with the APC.
“The fact that this risible propaganda is making its way into the public domain at a time when Governor Emmanuel is busy inaugurating life-touching projects around the State as part of his pursuit of the Completion Agenda and to mark the 6th Anniversary of his outstanding leadership in Akwa Ibom State equally speaks to the ill motive of its purveyors.
”As a party, we reiterate that no performing PDP Governor who would leave our Party to join a party that has visited untold hardship on Nigerians.
“We urge our people to disregard such rumours or at best regard them as the manifestations of the thought process results of people who do not wish Akwa Ibom State well.
“Akwa Ibom State, under the leadership Gov. Udom Emmanuel is marching forward with the PDP and no form of hallucinations from men of the Broom-wielding coven can change this resolve.”
