. We’re not worried, avoid repeating your 2014 mistake – PDP
Former Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, on Monday, lambasted the All Progressives Congress, describing the ruling party as an emergency contraption for hijacking power from the Peoples Democratic Party in 2015.
Okorocha, who is the current senator representing Imo West in the National Assembly, told journalists in Abuja that he and other progressive-minded politicians were already putting finishing touches to plans to form a new political movement.
PDP, however, appealed to the former governor to return to the opposition party rather than repeating his mistake of 2014.
Okorocha said from Nigerians’ body language, it had become clear that they were not satisfied with the situation in the country.
Last week, the lawmaker, who is a founding member of the ruling APC, inaugurated a project of the Rivers State Government on the invitation of Governor Nyesom Wike.
Okorocha, at the event, urged the good people in the APC and the PDP to come together and rescue Nigeria in 2023.
The former governor, on Monday, argued that there was urgent need for the regrouping of the ‘good politicians’ to restore public confidence in governance and save the country.
“The movement for a new Nigeria has begun and we must come together, I mean progressive Nigerians to make the country work,” he said.
Asked if the promise of the new political movement for a new Nigeria would not be similar to that of the APC in 2015, he stated that the APC was hurriedly formed to take power from the PDP without much emphasis on the character of those championing the course.
“The APC was a hurried arrangement. It was hurriedly formed to take power when the then government was drifting. The APC would have been better until people who were not members of the party; people who came for congratulatory messages, hijacked the party and became lords,” Okorocha said.
But the PDP, in its reaction, said it was not at all worried by the plan by Okorocha and a few of his friends to form a new political party.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said on the phone that the main opposition party was glad that more Nigerians, especially people like the former Imo State governor, had realised the deceit the ruling APC represented.
Ologbondiyan said, “Our advice to people like Okorocha is for him to avoid making the same mistake twice, any party hurriedly put together like the APC because elections are bound to fall into the same errors.
“He should rather come over to the PDP, a very structured party with a pedigree of performance. We’ve made a few mistakes in the past and we’ve learnt from them. Nigerians now know the difference between a properly structured political party which has their interest at heart and an association of angry men who only came together to grab power for power sake.”
But the National Secretary of the Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee of the APC, Senator John AkpanUdoedeghe, declined comments on Okorocha’s plan to float a new party.
“The Senator is a respected member of our great party, I have no comments,” he said.