Ex-Gov Martin Elechi Abandons PDP and Joins APC

Ex-Gov Martin Elechi Abandons PDP and Joins APC

Former governor of Ebonyi State, Chief Martin Elechi, has joined the list of top politicians from the South East who dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC). The immediate past former governor of the state who reigned under the platform of the PDP for eight years registered for the APC at Echialike, his home town at Ikwo Local Government Area in front of the party’s national leaders. The APC leaders were said to have come to Abakaliki, the Ebonyi capital, for a thanksgiving church service for the recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari and had after the event went to Elechi Ikwo. Giving reason why he decided to join the APC, Elechi said, “I knew Buhari 49 years ago when I started the movement for the creation of Ebonyi as he intervened during my arrest with nine other comrades, by officers of the defunct Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO).

“I was interrogated while standing for nine hours and he as the Brigade Major in Abakaliki at that time, ordered our immediate release. I thank God for his health as he had favoured the people of Abakaliki and will triumph in his onerous task of rescuing the country from misrule.’’ Elechi, who explained that he was proud of the PDP due to the democratic ideals of its founding fathers, however argued that the current leaders of the party have rubbished those ideals. “I was elected governor on two occasions under its platform as it used to be the pride of Africa, but was suddenly ravaged by self-inflicted crises and afflictions,” he said. The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who also is from the state, praised the former governor for his choice and told him that President Buhari will be pleased to receive the news. “What you did today will never be forgotten in the history of the state as we all should support President Buhari to actualise all his objectives for Nigeria,” Onu told him. Prominent politicians like former Senate President, Ken Nnamani and Senator Andy Uba are among many South East politicians to have dumped the PDP for the APC.