By Salim Yunusa
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has predicted that mass defection will rock both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) between now and December, as politicians realign ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The governor said although defection is an inherent part of the democratic process, those who defected from the PDP lacked integrity and character.
He stated this at the inauguration of the reconstructed William Jumbo, Ernest Ikoli, Eleme, Akassa, Abana and Mbiama streets in the old Government Residential Area of Port Harcourt.
“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 APC), they’ll come (to PDP). You that is angry here (in PDP), you will go. That is the game,” he said.
The governor stressed that insinuation that some governors and others who have defected from PDP to APC were being intimidated, is not tenable. He maintained that those who decided to jump ship lacked conscience, character and integrity.
“If it is by provocation, if it is by intimidation, if it is by coercion, then Rivers State won’t have been in 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,” he said.
