Ojakovo: No Distinction Between Old, New APC Members, Defectors From PDP Can’t Hijack Party Structure

By Daniel Dafe

Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State and the leader of the party in Ethiope East Local Government Area, Hon. Love Okeoghene Ojakovo, has called for unity in the party, following the defection of leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the APC in the state.

He spoke to journalists on Thursday in his Okpara-In Land residence in Ethiope East Local; Government Area, during a media chat.

Speaking on the rally of the party in the area, he hinted that the purpose was to galvanize the people and intimate them of recent happenings in the political terrain of Delta State and make them understand that APC aborigines and the new APC who have come to APC from the PDP are all united as one.

He added: “It is to make our people understand that there is no more any distinction. This rally also serves to congratulate His Excellency, Governor-Sheriff Oborevwore for the bold step he took in defecting from the PDP to the APC. Only did he not do that, he took along all his cabinet members and all the structures of the party in the state to APC. This is a landmark political move that has never happened in the history of Nigeria.

“We of the APC in Ethiope East commend his courage and doggedness in achieving this political engineering. We wholeheartedly welcome him and all who came from PDP to the big family of APC, and assure them that they are wholly welcome. There will be no stranger, there will be no old. We all have the same rights and opportunities in the party.”

Meanwhile, he appreciated Senator Omo-Agege for his uncommon role in pushing the party forward in the state.

His words: “We also want to seize this opportunity to thank one of the pillars of APC in Delta State, whose hard work resulted in the building of the APC that we see that the PDP is joining. That person is no other than His Excellency Senator Ovie Omo Agege who worked so hard, went through all the nooks and crannies of Delta State, campaigning and building the party from the ground.

“We also want to congratulate him for his large heart, even though he contested against Sheriff Oborevwori, the present governor, he has wholeheartedly accepted him and embraced him into the party. That they all, and we all, will work together for the betterment of Delta State.

Asked what the political motive was behind the defection, he said: “The political motive in any country is that politics is a vehicle to get to power and use that power for the development of the people of that state. And this is what we ask that His Excellency Sheriff Oborevwori should do. We also want to remind him that he is the leader of the party in Delta State. He is the controller of the party in Delta State. We ask him, in humility, to lead us all in the fear of God, with justice, equity, and fairness. Those of us, who have been here, should not be taken as strangers. But we all should be taken as one big family.”

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Speaking further, he said: “They will join us, they will have equal opportunity, equal rights; we are ready to share the positions so that everybody will blend. But, the question of taking over, never. Never! I repeat it, never. If not, they will go back to where they are coming from. I cannot gauge the personal interest of the people who are coming but I want people to understand the politics of Delta State in which I have been in for 22 years. 99 percent of APC members today who are not the new ones coming were formerly PDP, I was PDP. I was Commissioner for Housing in Delta State, I was also a commissioner for Finance under the leadership of PDP; so we are one.

“Like I told you, a party is a vehicle to get to power. It is like a very cool place. It is the vehicle that will carry you.”

He continued: “We want to congratulate our president, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who had such sagacity, in engineering this come-together of the two parties in Delta State. With what he has done, it will be difficult for us to have any opposition in Delta State, as it stands. The party will be stronger and stronger, with the grassroots reaching out to the big party in Abuja. For once, after many years, of the APC rule, the party will be stronger and stronger. Delta State is now in tandem with Abuja and that will bring many positive results that will benefit the people of Delta State,” adding that “the end result is that governance should be used for the benefit of the people.”

He said further: “As you can see, I am not a young man. I have been in this game for over 22 years. I will give you a simple example. Only two years ago, you had a big fight, battle for power, in which a few people died in some local governments. That discord is there, inbuilt. No one can imagine or think that their coming to APC will be just so smooth. There must be some hesitancy. There must be some fear. How are they going to receive us? Will they receive us as equals? And there is some shame. Look at our local area. We fought. When we say we fought, not physically, but ideologically, campaigning against one another and there was that separation. The coming together has to be gradual. So it is that gradual coming together that you are now seeing. It will eventually happen. It will be a gradual process and it is that gradual process we are experiencing.”

“So they have come to join us and we all work together to get to that promised land. So, we have no fears. I cannot gauge what their intentions are, but whatever intentions they have is within them.”

He also hailed the mega rally of the party in Ethiope East that held on Thursday.