The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, Monday predicted 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.
Senator Akume was the Governor of Benue State on the platform of the PDP between 1999 and 2007.
Senator Ayu who made the assertion 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.
Addressing the gathering, 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.”
He urged the PDP family 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 thanked the people of Benue State for the support given to Governor Ortom, himself and the PDP saying 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 a very effective and purposeful leadership in the state and you queue behind me, we can achieve great things in the state.”
The National Chairman also commended Senator David Mark for playing a very important role in his emergence as Chairman. He debunked insinuations that both of them contested the position saying if Mark had contested, he would have supported him to emerge.
Also speaking, Governor Samuel Ortom noted that the APC had failed Nigerians in all sphere saying the federal lawmaker took the right decision to return home to the PDP.
The Governor assured Dr. Dyegh and his teeming supporters that they would be fully reintegrated into the PDP family.
Earlier, Dr. Dyegeh who is a ranking member of the House of Representatives said he took the decision 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.
They cautioned against rumor mongering to create acrimony and division in the party assuring that as leaders they would continue to work together and also support the new party leadership to ensure the victory of PDP in 2023.
State Chairman of the PDP, Sir John Ngbede who commended the federal lawmaker for reuniting with his PDP family said “Benue is PDP and PDP is Benue state” assuring that more leaders of APC would continue to dump the party for PDP in the days ahead.
Meanwhile efforts to reach Dr. Aondona Mkor, the Media Adviser to the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, to get his reaction on the possibility of his principal defecting to the PDP was unsuccessfully.