A coalition of 60 support groups from the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday joined the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, saying it was tired of the failure of the former to make life meaningful for Nigerians.

The groups stormed the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja and were received by members of the National Working Committee led by the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus. Welcoming the decampees, Secondus who was represented by the National Secretary, Senator Ibrahim Tsauri, tasked the group to agree and resolve to work together to ensure victory for PDP. He said, “We all know what we are feeling in Nigeria. People are talking of what they are going to eat, no body is doing any invention. “PDP made mistakes and it was our mistake that brought Nigeria to the level it is now.

Today, this PDP is repositioned, rebranded and it is going to win. “Internal democracy has been built into the system of the party. Impunity has been taken away from the party and imposition has been given a red card. You are the people that brought APC onboard and you are going to shun APC and bring PDP onboard. “Take it or leave it, PDP is good in governance but APC was a merger and cannot be good in governance.

We are good in governance, take us back to governance, they are good in opposition, take them back to opposition” Tsauri challenged the coalition. In their address, the National Organising Secretary of Coalition of APC Support Groups, Mallam Dattyo Miya said that the coalition was behind APC’s victory in 2015 as they moved into every ward mobilizing voters for the party and ensured that the votes were protected. He added that they took a collective decision to abandon the APC, because it turned out to be a party of propaganda and impunity. He said, “Sir, in these groups you fine the good, the bad, the ugly as well as the very best of excellence.

 Most of these groups consists of seasoned Professionals, technocrats, experience businessmen of substance, motor park touts, petty traders as well as market women who together form the ingredients necessarily needed to sustain any serious political party and who on the aforementioned assumptions, used their resources, intelligence, time and energy to canvas support for party (APC). “Sadly however, it has turned out to be a government of propaganda, impunity, iniquity, cronyism and of course deceit and lies.” The exiting members concluded their address by assuring those remaining in the APC of total defeat at the general elections. “Finally, our former colleagues, we wish you well. We will remain friends and brothers.

The only difference between us now is ideology; while you chose to remain in an utopian assumption and allow impunity to thrive, we are of the conviction that, it is this type of collective complacency that allows impunity in our nation and that evil can only succeed when good people and leaders refused to talk. “So let us meet in the field, not in a war-war situation, with knives, sticks or guns but with sound policies and facts” Santiyo stated.

Also in his remarks, the PDP National Youth leader, S. K. Ude-Okoye told the coalition that although the party had shut the doors on the registration of support groups, it will reopen same to accommodate them. He said, “Nigerian are in chains and the only way to freedom is to vote in Atiku Abubakar. PDP is the only party that considers zonal feelings and state feelings.

In Nigeria, people’s lives are not respected. What is being respected are the lives of goats and cows. “We have collapsed 60 APC support groups out of 200, meaning that we have taken more than one third. We assure you that by the next week, we shall take the remaining groups,” Ude-Okoye stated.