BENIN CITY – Unsettled by the victory of General Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the March 28 Presidential election, more chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State are set to desert the party for the APC before Saturday’s general elections.
Already, with about eight days after Buhari was declared president-elect, over 10,000 PDP members including governorship candidates and principal officers have defected from PDP to APC.
Unconfirmed report has it that those to defect before Saturday include a prominent Benin chief who is a PDP caucus member and a House of Representative-elect and over 5,000 youths.
It was reliably gathered that immediately it became clear that President Goodluck Jonathan has failed in his second term bid, prominent chieftains of PDP started talks with APC members who were considered close to Governor Adams Oshiomhole and can carry their message forward to higher authorities.
It was also gathered that the resolve to move from PDP before Saturday’s election may not be unconnected with the desire to use it as a face saving device in the event that PDP fails in Saturday’s elections, especially as funds were not likely to come from the presidency to prosecute the elections.
A top official of the PDP confided in The Nigerian OBSERVER that President Jonathan, having lost out in the last elections may not be well disposed to release funds for Saturday’s election.
Reports have it that inspite of expected poor funding of Saturday’s elections, some PDP leaders said they can only leave the party if the party fails to secure majority members in the House of Assembly elections.