Former Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for Benue North West, Chief Mimi Adzape-Orubibi has formally left the party with thousands of her supporters to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Receiving the defectors on Saturday at Adikpo Comprehensive College, Governor Samuel Ortom said they made a wise decision by dumping a party that he stressed is against justice, equity and fairness.
Governor Ortom pointed out that the APC-led government has also failed to deliver on the economy and security which it promised Nigerians in 2015, saying it was enough reason for the people to vote the party out in 2023.
He explained that rather than handle the Boko Haram menace which was the only security challenge of the country at the time, the APC government took overpower, and the situation has multiplied to armed herdsmen attacks, banditry, and kidnapping.
The Governor stated particularly that the people of Kwande have no business being in the APC because the one Federal Project, a polytechnic which was approved to be sited in the area was taken away by the leader of the party in the state.
Senator representing North East, Dr. Gabriel Suswam said the coming of Mrs. Adzape-Orubibi into PDP has brightened the chances of the party while the state PDP Chairman, Sir John Ngbede assured the defectors of equal opportunities.
Others who spoke including a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, Mrs. Margaret Icheen, house of representatives member for Kwande Ushongo, Mr. Bob Tyough, and Assembly for Kwande West, Tertsea Gbishe, said with the defection of Mrs. Orubibi, APC was dead in Kwande.
Speaking on behalf of the defectors which included former APC chairman for Kwande, Mr. Iorfa Dzoho, Mrs. Orubibi attributed her decision to dump the APC to the inability of the government at the center which is controlled by the party to solve the economic and security challenges of the country.
The former chairman of the state Board of Internal Revenue Service, BIRS also said her resolve to join the PDP was to team up with Governor Samuel Ortom who gave her the opportunity to serve Benue as BIRS chairman to develop the state.
Thousands of APC members from Kwande, Ushongo and other parts of Benue North East left the party for PDP at the Adikpo event.
