Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The senator representing Anambra North in the National Assembly and Nigeria’s former Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, has explained that lack of internal democracy was the major reason why she dumped the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) party and returned to her former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The senator stunned Nigerians who had earlier seen her pitch tent with APGA when she discreetly worked for the party during the November 18 gubernatorial election in Anambra State despite being a card-carrying member of the PDP party and also elected a serving Senator under the PDP during the 2015 general elections.
Though she never announced her defection to APGA on the floor of the National Assembly, Sen. Oduah had dumped the PDP and defected to APGA few months ago after she identified with the party and visited the party National Headquarters in Abuja for a formal defection and also visited the party office with hordes of supporters in Awka to notify the party of her intention to seek reelection to the National Assembly under APGA platform few weeks back.
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She also sponsored her supporters under APGA last week in an air travel to Abuja to cheer her up when she went to the National Headquarters of the party to obtain her nomination form and expression of interest under the party amidst fanfare and social media hype.
However, in a sudden twist, Oduah was seen few days ago at Geogold Hotel, Awka owned by Chief Ndubuisi Nwobu, the incumbent Caretaker Committee Chairman of PDP, Anambra State Chapter where she appeared for screening among other aspirants into the various legislative positions of both the State House of Assembly and National Assembly seats from Anambra State preparatory for the primary election of the party.
Announcing her dumping of APGA and return to PDP yesterday, a statement from the media office of Senator Oduah said the decision to immediately return to her former party, the PDP was as a result of her discovery of the fact albeit lately that the workings of the APGA party presented to her in theory was different from the actual practice in terms of respecting internal democracy in electing the candidates to fly the party flag.
The statement reads thus: “Politics has always been about ideology and delivering service to the people for me, because I believe leadership is all about solving problems. Political platforms must afford members unfettered opportunity to participate in the electoral process and to solve the problems of their community, constituency and state.
“I joined APGA because I thought it had sound ideological leanings native to Igboland. But my ideological expectations were a mirage. I discovered that internal democracy, which will guarantee justice, fairness and equity, was also not in practice in the party.
“After due consultations and with respect to my religious beliefs, I announce that PDP remains the vehicle through which I will keep fulfilling my mandate to the people of Anambra North” the statement noted.
Efforts made to get the reactions of the National Organising Secretary of APGA, Chief Mike Kwentor and the State Chairman, Chief Norbert Obi were not successful as calls and text messages made and sent to their mobile phone lines were not answered.