A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Tom Fredfish, has condemned Governor Umo Eno’s defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He described it as illegal and urged the party to challenge the defection in court.
Governor Umo, on Friday, ditched the PDP for the All Progressives Congress, citing the crisis in his former party and love for President Bola Tinubu as a reason for his movement.
Speaking during an interview, Fredfish argued that Eno’s defection contradicts the party’s constitution, section 221, which states that a political party shall sponsor a candidate in an election. He added that in this case, the PDP sponsored the governor.
According to him “PDP in the state will not talk. How do you want them to talk when they are likely going to toe the path of the governor. Before you called me, I was planning a press release to call on the national chairman of PDP to immediately take action and challenge the defection of governor, UmoEno. The defection is very illegal for two reasons.
“One is that the governor did not adduce any sensible reason why he is leaving the party.The only reason he gave is that he admires the President.
“Akwa Ibom People did not vote for him to go and align with Mr President, they voted for him under a political party to implement the wishes of the people, but now because he wants to align with the president, he decided to leave the party was nominated and voted for to another party because he admires the president.
“Second, the constitution of the party section 221 is very clear and it states that a political party shall sponsor a candidate and the PDP in this case was the only party that sponsored the governor.
“It’s just like you went to eat at Kilimanjaro restaurant and after eating you went and pay at Chicken Republic. That is cheating. Again, it just like someone entering Ibom Air to use the governor’s analogy, and you had a very safe flight to Lagos and you went to pay at Air Peace” this is wrong he insisted.”