One of the newest defectors to the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Uduaghan, on Tuesday night listed the reasons that attracted him to the party.
Uduaghan, who was the immediate past Delta State Governor, moved from the major opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
He was among those that attended the APC National caucus meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday night.
He said that one of the factors that brought him to the ruling party was the massive developments coming to the Niger Delta area under Buhari’s administration.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, he said; “Politics is about interest, I’m from the Niger Delta and I managed a lot of crises from in Niger Delta. Sometimes I went to the creeks and engaged the boys and my principle when I was managing the Niger Delta was that of engagement and the current APC government has succeeded in managing the crises they met on ground through engagement.
“The President was seeing a lot of leaders from the Niger Delta while the Vice-President went from state to state of oil producing states, making a lot of engagements and agreements were reached.
“Nobody at that level had gone from state to state before in Nigeria, this was the first time and of course if that is happening, the crisis is not over, they need to be supported by those of us from the Niger Delta who are passionate about Niger Delta so that in moving forward we can have solutions to the crisis of Niger Delta.
“If a new person comes he would start putting agreement up again and all that.
“Secondly in the area of infrastructure, this government has done very well. Talking about my state, for the first time a rail line came to Delta, for the first time the gas city which we have been talking about, a committee has been officially inaugurated and for the time we have human capital development projects, school feeding and a lot is happening in Niger Delta.
“So for me, let me join the party to be able to effect changes because we cannot achieve anything by working from the outside in the Niger Delta.
“Some of us have to join the APC train and many people are going to come with me so that we can achieve a lot more in the Niger Delta for the APC government. Politics is about regional interest and I’m interested in the Niger Delta,” he stated.