Akpeki, cohorts, have no political value, says Uzor

Former Commissioner for Housing and later Chief of Staff Government House, Asaba, Chief Paulinus Akpeki, and his band of recent defectors to the All Progressives Party (APC) have come under strong critism over their claims for dumping the People Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State.

State PDP Chairman, Chief Edwin Uzor, dismissed them as persons without political value, and described them as a bunch of lazy, jobless politicians who lacked grassroots political base.

Chief Edwin Uzor, Delta PDP Chairman

 Besides, Uzor said they are fair weather politicians who contributed nothing to the APC where they decamped to as the APC did not even win a single Local Government Area in Delta State in the 2015 general elections.

Chief Uzor who made the remarks at a press conference addressed in Asaba, Delta state capital in response to the decampees statements by Akpeki, who decamped along with Mr. Ebifa Ijomah, Mr. Misan Ukubeyinje, and Dr. Akwara from PDP to the APC, also described them as political prostitutes and fair weather politicians, who believe they must be in government at all cost, even as he accused them of decamping from the PDP after their failed efforts to secure appointments in the Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa’s  administration.

Uzor who took swipes at the decampees one after the other flayed Akpeki in particular for being a failed politician, who was rejected by his own people in his ward in Sapele, and one who could not mentor any younger politician because of greed and penchant to always remain in power with successive governments in the past 16 years. “Yet he has nothing to show for being in government despite his continued appointments over the years and enjoying the goodwill of the PDP in those years,” the PDP chairman said. He cautioned the APC to be wary of a man like Akpeki, who wants to reap where he did not sow.

Chief Uzor also criticised Mr. Misan Ukubeyinje, a former Delta State Commissioner for Agriculture, as an opposition mole in the PDP, describing him as a former opposition Youth leader with the defunct Action Congress of Nigera, ACN, who was languishing in penury and political doldrum, until former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan rehabilitated him with a Commissionership portfolio.  Pointing out that this was the same man who had lost his first election in 1999 under the Action for Democracy, AD,  party, he, however, enjoyed political success when he decamped to the PDP in 2001 and won the House of Assembly election to represent his constituency for two terms, even when he did not make any contributions to the victory of Governor Uduaghan in 2011 and indeed to the party in the 2015 elections.

The Delta PDP Chairman said of Ebifa Ijomah, a former Delta State Commissioner for Youth Affairs that he who was given political recognition out of respect for his father, Prof. B.I.C Ijomah, an elder statesman, adding that he was a big disappointment and embarrassment to the PDP, as his tenure in the Ministry of Youth Affairs, witnessed unprecedented youth restiveness in the state, while his subsequent appointment as Commissioner for Economic planning exposed his incompetence and ineptitude as an administrator. Yet, instead of being ashamed of his dismal performance in office, he had the temerity to vigourously and desperately lobby Governor Okowa for another appointment in the present administration, who thankfully rejected his entreaties.

As for Dr. Akwara, the fourth decampee, who was a former governorship aspirant under the PDP, Chief Uzor dismissed him as a politician, who did not even know his ward and displayed shocking political ignorance when he came to the PDP secretariat to collect his governorship nomination form. He then questioned the political value and relevance Dr. Akwara intended to add to the APC with his defection, when he had merely been a fringe member of the PDP in his colourless political career, so far.

Chief Edwin Uzor described as laughable, the reason given by the defectors that they did not want to be part of a government and political party that was in opposition at the state level, reminding them that the APC had been in opposition for the last 16 years at the centre, and while assuring that their decamping was no big deal, he urged PDP faithful in the state not to be disturbed by the defections, as the decampees have no political value.

“These are hungry politicians, who decamp when things are no longer rosy. Defection is an option open only to lazy politicians without any base at the grassroots”, Chief Uzor said derisively..