The All Progressives Congress has asked President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party not to expect back those who defected from the PDP to the APC.
The party said this in response to an ultimatum given by the President to members of the ruling party who defected into the opposition party to return or lose their privileges.
Jonathan at a PDP rally in Owerri, Imo State, on Saturday, told the defectors, “We have opened the door for a few days. You join us these few days, the position you occupy is the position any other person will occupy. No discrimination.
“But if you don’t come and come later, you will queue behind your ward assistant chairman.”
In response, the APC, which spoke through its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed described the President’s comments as an embarrassing joke.
“I read the President’s statement where he said if they don’t come back, they will lose all the privileges they used to enjoy. Forgetting the fact that in these states, the governors have not only come over to the APC, they came with the entire members of their Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly.
“Does he not understand that these people have crossed the bridge of no return? What will happen if in a few days time they don’t return? Why does the President want to ridicule himself? Supposing after one or two weeks they don’t return what is going to happen? He will have diminished his value.”
One of the defectors, the Adamawa State governor, Murtala Nyako, said it was too late in the day to ask him or any of his colleagues to return to the PDP.
Nyako, who spoke through his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Ahmad Sajoh, said, “We have left the PDP and there is no going back. It is not an issue of giving people ultimatums, we cannot be part of the PDP as it is presently constituted. We are comfortable where we are.”
His Rivers State counterpart, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, said rather than give defecting governors an ultimatum to come back to the PDP, the President should persuade them.
Amaechi explained that the defecting governors gave enough notice before moving to the APC. He recalled that the President was also told to address the crisis rocking the PDP.
The governor, who spoke through the Chief of Staff, Government House, Chief Tony Okocha, said the defected governors and other politicians should be wooed to the PDP and not coerced back to the party.
“This ultimatum thing is not necessary. You cannot force governors that have defected to the APC back to the PDP by giving ultimatum. What the President needs is to woo or persuade them and not to give ultimatum,” Amaechi said.
Also, the Rivers chapter of the APC dismissed the President’s ultimatum saying, “Our members will not join a sinking ship”.
The Special Assistant to the Interim Chairman of the APC in the state, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, explained that calling on politicians like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Governor Rotimi Amaechi back to the PDP was an uphill task.
Eze urged the President to stop disturbing those that had already left the PDP to the APC.
“The ultimatum is unnecessary. What are they (politicians) coming to do in the PDP? Can somebody in a sinking ship escape and still go back to the same sinking ship? Asking people like Atiku and Governor Rotimi Amaechi to go back to the PDP is illogical,” he said. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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