Emeka Ihedioha, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives has dispelled rumours that he was about to defect to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC. Ihedioha told constituents at Mbutu, his home in Mbaise local government area of Imo State that such speculation was unfounded. The state governor, Rochas Okorocha, who won the seat on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, another opposition party has defected, though not without attracting controversy, to the APC. But the deputy speaker insists that he had no reason to leave the PDP.
According to him, having been a foundation member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and one of the people who built the party he would not abandon it for another political movement. His words: “It is impossible for me to abandon the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for any other political party. I am a foundation member of the PDP and worked very hard to build it”. So why would anybody suspect that Ihedioha would contemplate changing political platform?
It is probably because of the crisis in the PDP and the extensive lobby that the opposition party has embarked upon of recent. Some of these lobbies have yielded fruits, even at very top levels of the political hierarchy. Not only that, the speculation that Ihedoha might jump ship came on the heels of the mass movement of some of his colleagues in the House and speculations that the leadership of the House was left intact because of certain political arrangement which may see the principal officers defecting later to the APC.
Already Aminu Tambual, the speaker is believed to be on his way out. The statements credited to the speaker of recent, where he has been critical of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, further enhance this speculation. Meanwhile, Tambuwal and Ihedioha have had the best of working relationship. Some people may thus have assumed that both of them would want to pea
WhatsApp us