Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has declared that there will be mass defection from both the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, before December.
Wike, who said this in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, on Thursday, was quoted to have said that the defections are part of the plans by politicians to realign ahead of the 2023 general election.
Dismissing the report that some governors who defected from the PDP to the APC were being intimidated, the Rivers State governor averred that defection is an inherent part of the democratic process.
Wike said, “People are defecting; more will defect. Defection is part of our electoral process. As you are defecting, people are coming in. There are those who are angry there (in the APC), they’ll come (to the PDP). You that is angry here (in the PDP), you will go. That is the game.
“If it is by provocation, if it is by intimidation, if it is by coercion, then Rivers State won’t have been in the PDP. Because if there is one state that has been intimidated, if there is one state that has been punished by the ruling party, it is Rivers State. Yet nobody can push us, nobody can intimidate us to leave the hope and the future of this country, and that is the PDP.
“PDP has done a lot of wrong things to Rivers State, but I cannot say we will leave PDP. We will be there and fight the war. The interest of Rivers State will be fought inside PDP, we will not leave anywhere.
“Even if the whole states abandon PDP, Rivers State will not abandon PDP because we are people of integrity, we are people of character. Anybody who does not have integrity, who does not have character cannot say he is from Rivers State.”
Recall that on Tuesday, Wike had said that governors defecting from the PDP to the APC lack conscience and cannot be trusted.
