From Joe Effiong, Uyo
A Third Republic senator and foundation member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Eket Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Etang Umoyo, has defected to the All progressives Congress.
Umoyo, who was in the forefront of the campaign for Eket senatorial district to produce a governor in 2015, alleged that Akwa Ibom is moving backwards under the PDP-led administration.
A serving senator, Chief Nelson Effiong, also from the senatorial district had, two months ago, defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress, on the floor of the Senate, citing irreconcilable differences with the state government.
Umoyo, considered one of the most senior politicians in Esit Eket Local Government Area, has already registered with the APC in his Etebi Ward 7 last weekend.
He told newsmen that the seed of disintegration of the PDP in the state was sowed during the December 2014 governorship primaries of the party.
“Today is just for me to officially present myself to my Ward as a member of APC, but, I had long abandoned a group of mafians who called themselves politicians in PDP, immediately after the gubernatorial primaries in 2014, which saw to the imposition of a particular candidate against the wishes of the people.
“Today, the state is moving backwards because of that singular act of impunity,” Umoyo said.
He described the primaries as a show of shame and impunity of the highest order masterminded by a former governor; and said he decided to join “a national crusade against injustice, impunity, primitive stealing of public funds and the stifling of democratic principles across the country by a party I co-founded and laboured to build.”
He alleged Eket has become “a forsaken zone in terms of infrastructural development and key appointments.”
Also, a former member of the House of Representatives, Bassey Dan-Abia Jnr, described Umoyo as a light-bearer in the state, and that, with his official defection from the PDP, the party is dead in Esit Eket.