The immediate-past governor of Ebonyi State, Martin Elechi
has disclosed why he defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to him, the PDP is possessed by many devils that
hinder the progress of the nation.
He stated this in Abuja when he led his loyalists and party
executive from the state to the Abuja residence of the APC National Chairman,
Chief John Odigie-Oyegun to formally inform the Party’s National Chairman of
his defection.
Elechi, who registered for the APC at his country home in
Echialike, Ikwo Local Government Area in April also disclosed that the Minister
of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu amongst other APC leaders from the
southeast zone encouraged him to join the APC.
He said: “The Party (PDP) got bedevilled by impunity,
corruption, lack of respect for democracy, insensitivity to public opinion.
“We think that the greatest joy in a democratic system is
the right of people to choose who their leaders will be. That right to decide
and determine our leadership has been destroyed in Ebonyi state under the PDP.
“And that was why a majority of PDP members protested and
left that Party to look for a new democratic space.
“Our people have moved to the APC. I who swore that on
leaving the PDP I will never join another Party but I have now swallowed my
pride to say I will sink or swim with the people I had laboured with. And that
is why I joined the APC.”
While welcoming the ex-governor of Ebonyi state to the
Party, the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun expressed his commitment
to ensure that the South East adequately participate in the workings of the
governing Party and indeed the administration.
He said the APC will not repeat the culture of corruption
and waste which was the trademark of past PDP administrations
Odigie-Oyegun said: “I have that intense belief that every
zone must and should participate effectively, particularly the South East zone
that constitute one of the tripod in this nation. You cannot have a healthy
polity if any part of it feels that they are not in the mainstream.
“I have had the most wonderful few months receiving people
from the South East who have made that wonderful and desirable u-turn to allow
the Igbo race take their proper place in the scheme of things of this nation.
“Under the PDP, we became an economy that was totally built
on corruption. State resources were diverted into private hands and pockets,
the result of which the poor people of this country are feeling today… There is
serious work to be done.
“At a time when oil was selling for over $120 per barrel, we
neither built roads, railways nor did we maintain our airline, nor did we
refine our crude to use, nothing.
“The institutions and commonwealth of this country was
totally run aground. We spent billions of dollars on the energy sector and we
got no energy. It is so painful. When you see the revelations today, you really
feel that sense of anger.
“I am glad to receive you into the fold of the APC. The
challenges are immense. There is serious work to be done. We are in the process
of totally rebuilding this nation. We know the groans of our people, we know
what they going through but given where we are taking off from, it became
totally inevitable.
“As a Party and government are doing everything to make sure
the kind of corruption and waste witnessed in the past never happens in this
country again.
“We have the boldness to investigate, to query people who
have been in government and because we are hoping too that even if they are of
the same party when we move away from office, they will look at our records.
“Unless we start doing that, we will never come out of that
viscous cycle of everybody protecting everybody’s back and so corruption
becomes an institution in its own.”
By Chijioke Jannah
