By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Following the decamping of the member representing Tai/Oyigbo/Eleme Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Chisom Dike from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Party (APC) recently, more stakeholders of PDP in Oyigbo are said to be planning to also join the opposition party.
A staunch PDP member in Oyigbo told TPCN on Monday (yesterday) that the recent defection of their political leader, Chisom Dike, to the APC has emboldened many of the PDP members who have been nursing the ambition to join the APC for long, having lost faith in the PDP because of what they see as politics of favoritism.
According to the Oyigbo PDP chieftain, who pleaded that his name should not be mentioned “because of the sensitivity of this issue,” many PDP members in Oyigbo feel that they are not being carried along by the PDP-led government in the state despite the roles they played to ensure the continued dominance of the party in the area.
“We have long noticed the divisive tendencies of our leaders in the state, I mean those of us in PDP, and how we’re not being carried along in the scheme of things in the state. If you watch carefully, you will notice that Oyigbo has been cut off totally in terms of developmental projects by this administration. It’s as if we’re no longer part of Rivers State. Just look at our roads; look at our market, look at our schools. They’re not even maintaining the existing ones let alone building new ones. This was not what we bargained for when we joined this party and that’s why most of us have lost interest in remaining in PDP,” the PDP chieftain said.
On whether they have made effort to call the attention of their leaders to their plight before thinking of leaving the party as a last resort, he said: “We have complained to them severally about our situation in Oyigbo and all we got are promises upon promises. When we go to meetings, we still complain to them and it was still the same story. It’s not that they don’t even know what we’re suffering; they know but we still remind them, yet we’re not seeing any dividends of democracy either in cash or in kind. If you don’t belong to the cabal’s group, nothing for you. That is how they’re playing the politics. Look at what is happening in Obio/Akpor and Phalga; see the type of constructions going on there – both roads and flyovers. What will happen if they bring one to Oyigbo? We’re tired. And from now till December, many of our members will troop out of PDP to join APC. Many are already joining APC secretly, though they’re still in PDP nominally but since that Hon. Chisom Dike has joined publicly, most of our members have been coming out to boldly join APC – councilors, ward excos, youth leaders. The leader of our legislature, for instance, has secretly joined APC too. I’m talking of Hon. Denis Worgu. Myself too, I’m one leg in APC and one leg in PDP already.”
TPCN recalls that Chisom Dike, the member of the House of Representatives for Tai/Oyigbo/Eleme Federal Constituency recently decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
He also rejected the Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) Governor Nyesom Wike recently gave to all National Assembly members from the state.
The lawmaker said he could not accept the Governor’s gift because of the deplorable condition of all the roads in his primary constituency, Oyigbo, describing the roads in Oyigbo as death traps and impassible.
