Thursday, March 10, 2011Apparently tired of the lingering crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, thousands of its members, yesterday, defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to lend support to the former governor of the state, Dr. Chris Ngige, in his senatorial ambition.
The PDP members who were mainly from Anaocha Local Government and led by a former chairman of the local government, Mrs. Tina Akonobi, declared for ACN during the flag-off of Ngige’s Anambra Central Senatorial campaign held at the Emmaus House Complex, Awka.
Describing Ngige as the shinning light of the state, the defectors, through Akonobi, said the PDP had frustrated ambitions of many politicians in Anambra State, just as it had made nonsense of internal democracy in political party business. According to Akonobi, “immediately Dr. Ngige joined the senatorial race, we took our decision to dump PDP to follow him because he is the person who gave the people of Anambra State hope during his tenure as governor.
“PDP is a bunch of liars, PDP is a bunch of disgruntled elements, a bunch of miseries to this country. When a big masquerade appears, the small ones will run away. Ngige is the big masquerade in Anambra politics and that is why we chose ACN. ACN does not need to campaign for Ngige because always, he has been accepted and embraced by all the people of the state.”
Addressing the large crowd, Ngige who had earlier caused stir at the major streets of the state capital while on road show said if ACN was voted into power, it would recreate the middle class, which, according to him, had been destroyed over the years as a result of bad governance in Nigeria.
He also promised that ACN would reactivate about 5,000 industries that had gone moribund in Onitsha, Nnewi and Ideato industrial clusters in the South-east, adding that the industries would be reactivated through good legislation that would bring about constant power supply, saying, “we want to put a stop to this cycle of poverty in Anambra State.”.
Dispelling insinuations by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) that ACN was a South-west party, Ngige said it was a party formed by people from various zones of the country, who had the vision of the progressive Nigeria, urging the people to vote ACN massively during the forthcoming election.
Ngige also stated that he would ensure that oversight functions were reintroduced to make contractors handling different projects in the zone accountable, adding that he would sponsor bills for the control of erosion in the state and massive road construction.
