The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, has revealed one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministers who will soon join the nation’s opposition party.
Ayu who spoke at the decamping rally of the APC lawmaker representing Gboko/Tarka Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Dr John Dyegh and his teeming supporters to the PDP in Gboko on Monday, revealed that the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume would soon dump the All Progressives Congress, APC, and return to the PDP.
Naija News understands that Senator Akume was a former member of the PDP and had served as a Governor in Benue State on the platform of the umbrella party between 1999 and 2007.
Receiving defectors from the ruling party today, Senator Ayu said, “your lost son, Senator George Akume is coming back to the PDP. I am saying this based on what I know. I earlier prophesied that Akume would hold the broom and he did.
“Now I am prophesying that he will come back to the PDP. When he comes back, do not reject him but make sure you rehabilitate him because where he is now, he may not be thinking straight. He is like a lost son, a prodigal son. Only rehabilitate him and make sure he thinks properly.”
The newly-inaugurated PDP leader admonished members of the party in the state to heartily receive Dr. Dyegh and give him all the support to integrate into the party describing him also as a prodigal son who had seen the light and returned home to the PDP.
Senator Ayu applauded the people of Benue State for the support given to Governor Samuel Ortom, himself, and the PDP.
Stating that without the support of the people of the state it wouldn’t have been possible for him to become a Senator, a Senate President, and now National Chairman of PDP.
“I also thank Governor Ortom who supported me to become the National Chairman of our party. It shows that if you have very effective and purposeful leadership in the state and you queue behind me, we can achieve great things in the state,” Ayu said.
Ayu also commended Senator David Mark for playing a very important role in his emergence as Chairman. He debunked the reports that both of them contested the position saying if Mark had contested, he would have supported him to emerge.
In his remark at the event, Governor Samuel Ortom noted that the APC had failed Nigerians in all spheres saying the federal lawmaker took the right decision to return home to the PDP, assured Dr Dyegh and his teeming supporters that they would be fully reintegrated into the PDP family.
Stating his reason for defecting to the opposition party, Gyegh said he decided to dump the APC for the PDP alongside his supporters “because the National Chairman of PDP is my uncle and the fact that Governor Ortom is performing well by doing massive projects in the state including the numerous projects in Gboko Local Government Area. So I had no choice but to rejoin my family.”
While Senators Gabriel Suswam, Abba Moro and Oker Jev in their separate remarks noted that the PDP was large enough to accommodate everyone even as they harped on the need for all to be united to attract democracy dividends to the state.
