Three House of Assembly candidates of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election have defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State.
Also, 10 ward chairmen of the SDP in Obio/Akpor local government area of the state and hundreds of party members and supporters have joined the APC.
The three House of Assembly candidates were Choker Orlu (Obio/Akpor Constituency 1); Bright Amadi (Obio/Akpor Constituency 2) and Mgbo-Awaji Augustus (Andoni Constituency).
Receiving the defectors at the APC secretariat in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, chairman of the party’s Caretaker Committee, Chief Tony Okocha, described the party as one family.
Okocha expressed the hope that the defectors will bring value into the APC in the state, pointing out that there was no negative pressure on the former SDP members to join the APC.
He said: “My business is to receive formally, our brothers who have come willingly. They have come on their own without any duress, without any negative pressure from anywhere. My business is to welcome you with your positive energy.
“I would say to you that what you have done here today is actually not new in the history of politics and politicking. I say so because I have noticed and I have seen and we are hearing about a people who want to enter a house that the door is open and they want to enter through the window.
“We have decided that anybody who wants to enter a house that the doors are open through the window, cannot be a good visitor. I will not have any aota of resistance to receive you into the APC family. I am aware that you bring value and you have already started to show that you will bring value to the system.
“The APC that I lead in consent with my colleagues here, we work in unison; we are a family and because we are a family, we have also told ourselves that our business will be to build a robust APC in Rivers State. There will be no factions, no factionalism and no factionalisation. All of us are one; APC is one.”
