Going, Going, Gone! How Governor Ayade Snubbed PDP Govs, Moved Officially To APC

Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State announced he was joining the All Progressives Congress (APC), thus reportedly snubbing Governors of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who have been persuading him to rescind his decision to defect.

BIGPENNGR reports that Ayade, elected on the platform of the PDP in 2015, has been having running battle with the PDP in the state over the control of the party’s structures, which he was said to lost after a controversial state congress of the opposition party.

The governor, it was gathered has also not been participating in recent events of the PDP governors, preferring to delegate his deputy instead.

Recalls that the Peoples Democratic Party’s Governors’ Forum led by its Chairman and Governor of Sokoto State, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal had on Wednesday, 5 May, 2021 moved to Calabar, the Cross River State capital, to stop the planned defection of Governor Ayade and 19 elected local government chairmen and 193 councillors in the state.

Tambuwal led his colleagues from Delta and Enugu States, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, respectively to visit Ayade whom they met for about two hours in a meeting termed as fruitful, peaceful and productive.

Few weeks after, reports say four governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday also stormed Calabar, Cross River State capital, to lobby Governor Ayade to defect from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling APC.

The Chairman of APC National Caretaker Committee and Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Mala Buni led the delegation which comprises, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Senator Hope Uzodimma of Imo State; Hon. Simon Lalong of Plateau State and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, who was also said to be in the APC team.

In what appears like APC team having upper hand in the persuasion game, Governor Ayade was said to have concerted to the APC team and in a twist hosted a dinner in Government House, Calabar, on Wednesday evening, with seven APC Governors in attendance.

Some of the APC Governors in attendance are those of Kebbi, Yobe, Ebonyi, Imo and Nasarawa.

Ayade would later announced his defection Thursday morning at the Executive Council Chamber of the Governor’s Office while hosting some of the governors of the APC; among them Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Senator Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, Hon. Simon Lalong of Plateau State and the Chairman of APC National Caretaker Committee and Yobe State Governor, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, who had stormed the state since Wednesday to lobby him to join the ruling party.

While announcing his defection from the PDP, Ayade declared that henceforth, Cross River State has become an APC state, and urged all his supporters and followers to go to their respective wards and register with his new party, according to THISDAY report.