Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, yesterday described members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as job seekers who had no political value in the zone. A former President of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, recently defected along with other PDP members to the APC.

In a remark at the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP in Abuja, Ekweremadu declared that the electoral values of those defecting are well known.

He said: “Recently, we have heard of a number of defections from the PDP to the APC. For me, coming from the southeast, they are doing registration of the APC in the zone and some people are defecting.

“Also in the National Assembly, some people have left for the APC. But my response to it is this: let me start from the southeast, those of my brothers and sisters who are here, they know the electoral value of each and everyone of us.

“We are not going to tell you but those who keep their ears will find out later because we allowed them so that they could get the contracts that they are seeking, we allowed them to get the employment they are seeking.

Ekweremadu said those living the PDP now thinking that the party is dead are making a grave mistake, because the party can only get stronger.

In his remarks, the newly elected chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum and governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, observed that the whole country was tired and already looking forward to another change because of the APC’s poor handling of affairs.

He noted that the challenges faced by the PDP members included “arrests, incarceration, intimidation, provocation by the party in government,” and assured that only change is constant.

He said: “The whole country is not only tired of the ruling party, they want another change. If not for the constitution, they want the change tomorrow.”

Fayose submitted that the anti-corruption fight of the ruling party is nothing but a ruse and a weapon of intimidation.

“Nigerians are tired of the story of corruption especially when you find that people that are fighting corruption are busy stealing cows and are running after those people alleged to have stolen squirrel,” he remarked.

Fayose appealed to party leaders to work together while those aspiring for offices should do so with decorum. He said he will continue to express his mind and does not care if the Federal Government withdraws his police guards.

“I will continue to leak their secrets. I will remain a torn in their flesh. Anything they want to do let them come. If they want to carry their police, let them carry their police. I don’t care,” he declared.

And in an opening address, the chairman of the PDP National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, disclosed that judgment on the legal tussle regarding the true leadership of the PDP would soon be delivered.

According to Makarfi, the outcome of that case will serve as an important foundation in the moving forward of the party and Nigeria adding that we have confidence that the judiciary will do what is right.”