In the very recent past, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been, like a good farmer reaping the rewards of its hard work, harvesting political heavyweights in their droves to its fold to the envy of other political parties desperately struggling to stay afloat. ANDREW ESSIEN writes.Recently, Delta State made its own donation to the ever swelling ranks of the APC as over 300 members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state decamped in their droves. The defection of people in Aniocha North Local Government Area of the state from PDP to APC in February this year was a pointer to the political tsunami that was about to befall the polity, at least from the state.States like Edo, Ondo, Bayelsa, Benue, Ekiti, Anambra, among others have partook of the communion as it were of mass defections from other parties to the ruling APC .It was no different in Delta as thousands decamped to the APC recently, leading the defectors, Mr. Dada Ogoli-Egbune, a former chieftain of the party in the state, said: Our decision to leave the PDP is because, after the party suffered terminal illness at the last general election, it has refused to reform.I have always hoped that we could help PDP to reform itself but that has not happened. The more we try, the more it seems that the party is terminally ill. So, it came to a point that I think that what is best for me and my people, and what is best for Nigeria, is being in APC which has actually appeared to be charting a path for Nigeria. Although it is slow, I think Nigeria is on the path of progress.It is not easy, we must realise that for 16 years, the PDP almost destroyed this country and people did not say anything. The government is just taking off. For the first time, there is fear in the land, the issue of impunity is no longer there. People are no longer as bold as they were to indulge in corrupt practices.There is now purposeful leadership, it is no longer business as usual. Although they can do more, but by and large there, is purposeful leadership, he said.Receiving the defectors, the chairman of the APC in ward four, Aniocha North, Mr Jerome Azike, said, he was happy to receive them, adding It shows the wind of change is already blowing. This however, was a tip of the ice berg.In May of this year, Delta APC governorship candidate, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, affirmed that a serial governorship candidate, Chief Great Ogboru and a former state House of Assembly Speaker, Victor Ochei, along with their followers would be admitted into the party in June, but that the move does not amount to a merger.Emerhor in the interview said It is no surprise that APC, as the national ruling party is attracting expected interest of critical political players in Delta who share the common mission of dislodging the PDP that has misruled the state for nearly 17 years. We are excited at the decision of the opposition leaders and former PDP power brokers now joining forces with us in this endeavour. In particular, Chief Great Ogboru is leading the LP in Delta to join us.A former Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Victor Ochei, aside being the state leader of Accord Party, also set up a state-wide structure to pursue his then governorship aspiration while in PDP. Ochei is also collapsing his structure into the APC. There are equally former commissioners, other top government appointees and PDP stalwarts who have joined us or are warming up to do so.With this, the scene was set for the great harvest of the now ripened fruits to be brought into the store house. In June, the national secretariat in Abuja was agog as it played host to the movers and shakers of the Delta State politics following the entry of Great Ogboru, Hon. Victor Ochei, Frank Kokori, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, and others.The delegation, which was led by the Delta State party chairman, Olisaemeka Akamukali told the APC leadership that the party in Delta State, which was bedevilled by all sorts of crises, was now stronger and a united family, even so because of the entry of the chiefs.On his part, one of the new brides and the former speaker of the state assembly, Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei told the NWC that Delta has been a battle ground for political parties, saying that the PDP has used all sorts of tactics to retain power despite their disenchantment with the people. He maintains that most of the PDP hatched men have now embraced the APC, urging the party leadership to provide the enabling platform so that they can wrestle power out from the PDP.Your excellency, I want to give you my word that as a strong member of the party, be rest assured that all we need is your cooperation, give us the environment to do the needful, because doing the needful is not difficult for us because we understand the terrain Ochei said.Great Ogboru, who is popularly addressed as the General recounted how his mandate was stolen in the past because he was in the opposition party and how the past government used the judiciary to frustrate his mandate, adding that he is coming into APC with a faction of the Accord party known as the Light of Labour.According to him, Light of Labour has always been APC because the movement has its genesis from the South South coalition in the year 2000 which metamorphosed into Alliance for Democracy, AD and became the Democratic Peoples Party DPP, then Accord party and now translated to the APC.On his part, Frank Kokori said that opposition politics is all he understands, adding that he had never benefited from a ruling party. He insisted that Delta State is the most rotten state and has nothing to show despite its huge resources.He said, Today, I remain the compass, the moral conscience of the opposition in Delta State. Apart from the General and a few of us, we have remained steadfast in the opposition, and have suffered a lot of deprivation in the hands of the ruling party.Assuring the decampees that they were in the right party where every interest is favourably considered, the deputy National Chairman (South), Segun Oni, said you are beginning to feel the way we feel. For a party to succeed, it must be an inclusive party. Show me a party of inclusiveness and I will show you progress and success. Now you are beginning to see it, to do it and I want to encourage you to do it.Visibly happy with the in-roads and gains the party has gathered in the state, the National Chairman of the Party, John Odigie Oyegun assured his guests that equality and transparency is in the character of APC. He assured them that the party will work very hard to reclaim Delta in the next election.He thanked Delta State former governorship aspirant for his open handedness, for introducing and allowing even more powerful politicians to come into the fold.Oyegun said: Delta has been a difficult state but see what we are experiencing today. We are getting a crop of people who are beyond corruption, who have no price tag.Before, it was just a few persons which made organising very difficult. People cause trouble for a reason you cannot understand. They were being paid to cause a discordant tune deliberately within the system.He assured them that the National Working Committee will soon be in Delta to consummate their membership.Some political analysts have often posited that any and everywhere Great Ogboru goes, he gathers momentum as evident in his formal entry and that of erstwhile Speaker of the Delta House of Assembly, Victor Ochei into the opposition APC in Delta State, just as it has, expectedly, generated the kind of fireworks that can only be generated by the movement of famed political gladiators of yore.It is a fact that both Ogboru and Ochei had, in the past, shown their capacity to mobilise crowds in their different and personal capacities as politicians in their native Delta State, hence, this strategic alliance is bound to elicit the interest of many.But given the turbulence that has characterised the state chapter of the party in the past two years or so and the interests of all the decampees who are powerful forces to be reckoned with in their own individual right, many wonder what it will be like when the whistle is blown as a build up to 2019, taking cognisance of their aspirations to lead Delta State.The question on the minds of many is how long can they all dance to this new political symphony that is chiming so loudly in the political arena in the state' Only time, as often said, will tell.
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